Abstract in Portuguese:

Os novos problemas relacionados a riscos e ao meio ambiente têm aspectos comuns que os distinguem dos problemas científicos tradicionais: os fatos são incertos, os valores, controvertidos, as apostas, elevadas e as decisões, urgentes. Chamamos de ciência pós-normal a estratégia de resolução de problemas adequada a esse contexto. A função essencial de controle de qualidade e avaliação crítica não pode mais ser desempenhada por um corpo restrito de especialistas. O diálogo sobre a qualidade e a formulação de políticas devem ser estendidos a todos os afetados pela questão, que formam o que chamamos de 'comunidade ampliada dos pares".

Abstract in English:

The new issues of risk and the environment have common features that distinguish them from traditional scientific problems: uncertain facts, values in dispute, high stakes, and a pressing need for decision-making. The problem-solving strategy appropriate to this context can be called post-normal science. The essential function of quality assurance and critical assessment can no longer be performed only by a restricted corps of insiders. The dialogue on quality, along with that on policy, must be extended to all those who have a stake in the issue, that is, to the extended peer community.

Abstract in Portuguese:

O artigo analisa como Gilberto Freyre trata das questões de saúde na obra Casa-grande e senzala: formação da família brasileira sob o regime de economia matriarcal. A análise volta-se inicialmente para a influência do movimento pelo saneamento dos sertões, surgido no final da década de 1910. Em seguida, observa a relação que o autor atribui ao problema da sífilis no Brasil, procurando compreender a relação dessa valorização com as questões de raça e miscigenação sempre presentes em sua obra. Por fim, procura situar as idéias de Freyre no ideário eugênico em voga no Brasil, período de elaboração de sua obra.

Abstract in English:

The article analyzes how Gilberto Freyre addresses health-related issues in his book Master and slave. The first point of focus is how the sanitation movement that emerged in the sertão region in the late 1910s influenced Freyre's essay. The article next endeavors to understand the relation between Freyre's emphasis on the problem of syphilis in Brazil and the issues of race and miscegenation, both of which are constants in his works. Lastly, the article endeavors to situate Freyre's ideas within the ideological framework of eugenics that was in fashion in Brazil at the time his works were written.

Abstract in Spanish:

La propuesta de este artículo es discutir el proceso de reforma en los servicios de salud puesta en práctica en México a partir de 1982 y que todavía está en curso. Ese proceso de reforma será estudiado como un fenómeno socio-político cuya dinámica y naturaleza son resultados de conflictos pasados y presentes que se articulan alrededor de proyectos técnico-asistenciales, expresión de determinadas visiones del futuro. El trabajo empezó por considerar la propia estructura de poder históricamente constituida a través de la acción del Estado en el sector salud la cual promovió a determinados grupos sociales, estimuló su desarrollo y los incorporó en sus estructuras de poder, al mismo tiempo que marginó y reprimió a otros. En un segundo momento, el trabajo reconstituyó empíricamente la 'historia social' de la reforma, esto es, la dinamización de los intereses y de los conflictos en torno de la mejor configuración del sector salud.

Abstract in English:

The article discusses the health care reforms that have been underway in Mexico since 1982. The process is examined as a socio-political phenomenon whose dynamics and nature are the products of past and present conflicts regarding technical and social-work projects, which constitute reflections of certain views of the future. The text first looks at the government-engendered power structure that has dominated the health care sector and that has benefited certain social groups, encouraged their development, and incorporated them into its power structures while simultaneously marginalizing or repressing others. The article next offers an empirical reconstruction of the "social history" of this reform, that is, of the dynamics of interests and conflicts surrounding the question of how the health care sector might best be shaped.

Abstract in Portuguese:

Este artigo tem três objetivos. O primeiro deles apresenta um quadro geral do processo de formação e institucionalização do ensino da medicina e do exercício da profissão médica no Rio Grande do Sul, levando em conta os princípios e critérios de excelência profissional e social vigentes e da hierarquia e recrutamento de sua elite. O segundo busca apresentar as principais mudanças na composição social do corpo docente, desde sua formação. O terceiro discute alguns fundamentos da chamada 'crise da medicina'.

Abstract in English:

The first of the article's three goals is to provide an overview of the process by which the teaching and practice of medicine has evolved and been institutionalized in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state. In doing so, it considers prevailing principles and criteria regarding professional and social excellence, along with the hierarchical structure and recruiting of its elite. The second goal is to point out the main changes that have occurred in the composition of the teaching staff since its formation. Lastly, the article discusses some of the bases of the so-called medical crisis.

Abstract in Spanish:

Tomando como punto de partida la discusión de Canguilhem relativa al estatuto epistemológico del concepto de salud, pretendemos problematizar las conceptualizaciones dada por la OMS y una definición ampliada enunciada por la VIII Conferencia Nacional de Salud que se han convertido hoy en hegemónicas. Esas conceptualizaciones entienden la salud como equilibrio y adaptación al medio. Nuestro objetivo fundamental es evidenciar que el ámbito de los enunciados está en permanente cruzamiento con el ámbito de lo no discursivo, de lo institucional. Siendo así, la aceptación de determinado concepto de salud implica el direccionamiento de determinadas políticas y de ciertas intervenciones efectivas sobre el cuerpo y la vida de los sujetos.

Abstract in English:

Taking as a point of departure Canguilhem's view on the epistemological status of the concept of health, the article examines current hegemonic concepts which see health as a question of balance and adjustment to the environment-including herein the conceptualization posed by the World Health Organization and the broad definition laid out during the 8th Health Conference. The basic goal of this examination is to show that what is defined in discursive statements constitutes an ongoing interaction with the metadiscursive statements more closely related to the world of institutions and institutional action. It is therefore argued that the adoption of a particular notion of health implies the selection of a particular direction in health care policies as well as the application of a particular set of intervention strategies regarding the lives and bodies of subjects.

Abstract in Portuguese:

A partir da análise crítica do livro de José Augusto Drummond, Devastação e preservação ambiental no Rio de Janeiro, o autor faz um inventário dos investigadores, das questões e das fontes que configuram a eco-história, um campo recente de investigação que agora começa a aflorar na historiografia brasileira, obrigando-a a repensar em profundidade as relações entre ciências sociais e naturais, sociedade e biologia, homem e natureza.

Abstract in English:

Based on a critical analysis of José Augusto Drummond's book Devastação e preservação ambiental no Rio de Janeiro, the author of this article has compiled an inventory of the researchers, issues, and sources that are found within the field of eco-history. The appearance of this new area of research within Brazilian historiography has forced the discipline to seriously rethink relations between the social and natural sciences, society and biology, man and nature.