Da Escola de Chicago ao Nacional-desenvolvimentismo: Saúde e Nação no pensamento de Alberto Guerreiro Ramos (1940-1950)

Abstract

This paper explores the interface between Public Health and Social Sciences in Alberto Guerreiro Ramos' thought (1940-1950), in the light of his intellectual trajectory and the history of Social Sciences in Brazil. It shows how Health itself was a key-element for Guerreiro Ramos's interpretation about nation and the role of Social Sciences in the process of modernization. Starting his career in Brazilian government agencies, Guerreiro's first writings on Well-child care and Health were inspired by north-American sociological approaches, mainly derived from the so-called "Chicago School of Sociology". In the 1950s, Guerreiro Ramos accounted for health problems such as infant mortality in terms of "underdeveloped" social-economic structures and criticized Brazilian health programs he somehow considered detached from the country's main goal of industrialization.