Popay J, Williams G
Public Health Research and Resource Centre, University of Salford, England.
Soc Sci Med. 1996 Mar;42(5):759-68. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(95)00341-x.
Social science research into the social patterning of health and illness is extensive. One important aspect of this has been work on lay knowledge about health and illness. In this paper we develop three main arguments. First, we suggest that recent developments in social science understanding of the nature and significance of lay knowledge should be more widely recognized within the social sciences themselves. Second, we argue that if public health research, whatever the disciplinary perspective, is to provide an understanding of contemporary health problems that is simultaneously more robust and more holistic, it must incorporate and develop the theoretical and conceptual insights offered by this recent work on lay knowledge and with lay people. Finally, we argue that in order to accomplish this it will be necessary to construct research questions in such a way that the conventional distinctions between science and non-science, and the methodological wrangles associated with this distinction, become marginal to the research process. This will inevitably involve conflicts between members of different professional groups. These conflicts provide the opportunity for open debate on the science and politics of public health research and represent a challenge for the many disciplines involved in this field.
社会科学对健康与疾病的社会模式的研究十分广泛。其中一个重要方面是关于公众对健康与疾病的认知的研究。在本文中，我们提出三个主要观点。第一，我们认为社会科学对公众认知的本质和意义的最新理解进展，应在社会科学内部得到更广泛的认可。第二，我们认为，无论从何种学科视角出发，公共卫生研究若要提供对当代健康问题更有力且更全面的理解，就必须纳入并发展近期关于公众认知及与公众相关研究中所提供的理论和概念性见解。最后，我们认为，为实现这一点，有必要以这样一种方式构建研究问题，即科学与非科学之间的传统区分以及与此区分相关的方法论争论，在研究过程中变得无关紧要。这将不可避免地引发不同专业群体成员之间的冲突。这些冲突为公开讨论公共卫生研究的科学性和政治性提供了契机，也对该领域涉及的众多学科构成了挑战。
