The dynamics of the biomedical and health knowledge: a sociological interpretation

Abstract

The biomedical and health knowledge production has grown as a research object of Social Sciences. Scientific and technological changes, as well as the emergence of new social arrangements in the way research is conducted and agendas drawn up, have produced this interest. The aim of this essay is to present some central characteristics of this subject as an object of sociological research, for which we highlight three axes of analysis intertwined with each other, related to the transformations in the medical and health area, the pattern of financing research and its technological platform. Thereby, the text provides some tools to advance the research from the perspectives of social studies of science and of sociology on the production of biomedical knowledge and in contemporary health.

Keywords:
Science and Technology Studies; Sociology of scientific knowledge; Biomedical and health research; Emerging biotechnologies; Life sciences