Care as an Integrative Concept in Health Practices and Community Participation: An Analysis of its Epistemological Assumptions

Abstract

This paper presents a research project on health care practices and community participation developed by a team of professors and researchers from the Ramón Carrillo School of Health (FBCB-UNL). It describes the paths that led to the construction of the topic, recognizing the shift in the health field from the concept of “attention” to the concept of “care”; It aims to identify the main theoretical approaches to health care, explain the epistemological and ethical-political conceptions that underpin them, and analyze their connection with community participation in light of its potential to transform social reality. To this end, a theoretical methodology focused on the critical analysis of health care conceptualizations and practices was used, which contain a theoretical potential to integrate different dimensions and levels of analysis. The results are presented according to four lines of work that comprised the project. Finally, some axes of discussion are put forward, emphasizing the need and relevance of considering the concept of care as an integrative concept with epistemological, ethical, and political implications.