“Redefining social medicine from Latin America: Historical foundations and contemporary directions": New article by Francisco Ortega and Gabriel Abarca-Brown
New article by Francisco Ortega and Gabriel Abarca-Brown, published by PLOS Global Public Health: "Redefining social medicine from Latin America: Historical foundations and contemporary directions".
This article examines the contemporary meaning of social medicine, a field marked by its porous limits, plurality and dispute. Instead of offering a fixed definition, we trace its changing forms through time, geography and politics, positioning it as a "border object" that adapts to diverse contexts and retaining a minimal common identity. The comparative discussion with medical anthropology, social studies of medicine, global health, underlines the different approach of social medicine in structural determinants, inequalities and justice. We propose three elements that could be the basic common elements of social medicine, based on the founding principles of Latin American social medicine for this classification: 1) political commitment to social justice, 2) the central role of the social sciences, and 3) participatory methodologies rooted in community participation. We highlight how these elements informed transformative reforms and also how institutionalization sometimes diluted revolutionary impulses into bureaucratic logics. Finally, we analyze how these basic common elements of social medicine identified through the Latin American case are manifested in other historical currents within the field and in contemporary expressions of "protest medicine". In these contexts, health professionals and volunteers provide care, document state violence and transform medical testimony into political action. By placing these practices at the intersection of grassroots militancy and institutional incorporation, the article reflects on the tensions and lasting possibilities of social medicine as a global and evolving project oriented towards equity in health and social justice.
