Subfields and spaces within the field of Public Health: boundaries and integration

Abstract

This essay discusses aspects of integration between public health subfields, highlighting obstacles and possibilities. We present a brief analysis of the emergence and development of public health subfields, focusing on movements geared towards the integration of areas and the various disputes within these areas. We outline theoretical propositions and practical initiatives oriented towards interdisciplinarity and underline theoretical and conceptual developments. Drawing on Bourdieu’s sociology, we propose that, like other social fields, public health subfields constitute autonomous microcosms rooted in historical and social processes dominated by boundary disputes. In addition to the above, we highlight obstacles related to the incorporation of specialist knowledge and the acquisition of habitus by the subfields. Finally, we discuss possibilities of integration as a product of collective processes within the field of public health.