Rethinking public health and the role of social sciences and humanities in health

Abstract

This essay analyzes the conflicts and potential of social sciences and humanities in health (SSHH) in the field of public health and the challenges of acting in an interdisciplinary area. We present some of the particularities of SSHH, dialoguing with internal tensions and then go on to problematize qualitative methodologies and their use in public health research, maintaining a dialogue with the other areas. Finally, we reflect upon the outlook for SSHH and possible theoretical and methodological pathways that would broaden the cross-cutting nature of the area. Rethinking relations between areas prompts reflection on a possible and timely reconfiguration of public health. The challenges give rise to the need to rethink the notion of SSHH, question the language we are constructing, and ask what we can do.