Abstract

SAMAJA, Juan. Challenges to epidemiology (steps to a "Miltonian" epidemiology). Rev. bras. epidemiol. [online]. 2003, vol.6, n.2, pp. 105-120. ISSN 1415-790X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1415-790X2003000200005.

This paper argues that one of the major challenges that contemporary Epidemiology has to face is at the level of theory. In essence, it is necessary to revise the abstract conceptualization of the dominant Epidemiology object, which has reduced the health of the population to behavioral risks, without taking into account the link that people have to their geographical and environmental corporities. This article then seeks to reinsert the dialectical perspective that leaves aside the substantialist view of population reality, on one side, and that of the environment, on the other, in order to propose a structural, functional and historical perspective of both concepts, developing, in this way, the spirit of the Great Brazilian Geographer's work.

Keywords : Environment; Critical epidemiology; Epidemiology and globalization.