Salud Pública, justicia social e investigación cualitativa: hacia una investigación por principios

ABSTRACT: This paper is the result of a theoretical study aimed at problematizing the current procedure of using qualitative research in public health and justifying it through the type of its object (“qualitative”), thus grounding on a dichotomous conception of reality that gives rise to a dualistic qualitative/ quantitative nature of research. I start by acknowledging the existence of various axiological referents which determine the diversity in qualitative research on public health and in the conceptions of social justice underlying the different schools of thought in the discipline. Since we don't conduct research in a disciplinary vacuum, I built two theoretical “edges” of public health that support different sets of values, to discuss how to think about qualitative research in different axiological scenarios. One edge corresponds to what can be called the classic Anglo-Saxon perspective of public health and the other has been constructed by taking into account the three Latin American public health schools of thought. The analysis was structured by contrasting the differences of the meaning that these two “edges” give to reality, science, the object of research, rationality, society, and social justice. This comparison made it possible to see how the instrumental perspective of qualitative research focused on the types of objects and on a dichotomous universe has no meaning for the dialectical and hermeneutical conceptions of reality. It is argued that the similarity between some trends of qualitative research and these Latin American schools of thought of public health is due more to the congruence among related sets of values, which serve as principles, than to the type of object. In this sense, an approach to research based on principles (values) is proposed, which overcomes the “quali” vs. “quanti” dichotomous views.

• Autores: Peñaranda Correa, Fernando
• Tipo de recurso: Article of investigation
• Fecha de publicación: 2015
• Institución: Universidad de Antioquia
• Repositorio: Repositorio UdeA
• Idioma: spa
• OAI Identifier: oai:bibliotecadigital.udea.edu.co:10495/4371
• Acceso en línea: http://hdl.handle.net/10495/4371
• Palabra clave: Investigación cualitativa; Justicia social; Salud pública; Dialéctica; Hermenéutica
• Rights: openAccess
• License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/co/