The article transcribes and comments on three papers published by sociologist José Arthur Rios in the Boletim do Serviço Especial de Saúde Pública in the early 1950s. These texts stand as valuable references in understanding a period in which projects for cultural change guided health programs and especially health education initiatives. The article begins by portraying the backdrop against which the Special Public Health Service conducted its activities following its 1942 creation as the result of a cooperation agreement between the Brazilian and U.S. governments. Aspects of José Arthur Rios' professional trajectory and intellectual influences are also examined, and the role of the social scientist in non-academic areas and in the shaping of public agencies and policies in Brazil is discussed.
Special Public Health Service; history of the social sciences; health education; cultural change; social sciences in health
