Conhecendo a Literatura Popular

REVISÃO REVIEW

Compreendendo a Educação Popular em Saúde: um estudo na literatura brasileira
Understanding Popular Health Education: a review of the Brazilian literature

Luciano Bezerra Gomes
Emerson Elias Merhy 3

Abstract
Centro de Ciências Médicas,
Universidade Federal da
Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brasil.
2 Faculdade de Ciências
Médicas da Paraíba, João
Pessoa, Brasil.
3 Faculdade de Medicina,
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro,
Brasil.
1

Correspondência
L. B. Gomes
Departamento de Promoção da Saúde, Centro de Ciências
Médicas, Universidade Federal da Paraíba.
Cidade Universitária, João
Pessoa, PB 58051-900, Brasil. [e-mail] This article reviews the Brazilian literature on popular health education, a theoretical area that includes a relevant group of the country’s public health researchers and political activists. This was a qualitative, exploratory, analytical study. Based on a search in the SciELO database and books and book chapters, we systematized the academic output on popular health education in Brazil. The article discusses the historical process in which popular health education was constructed by various social movements. We further analyze the general characteristics of popular health education and its main agendas, the ways by which authors with this perspective view the educational work of health services for the population, and their critiques and disputes with the hegemonic approach to the organization of education and health care. Finally, we identify several additional contributions to popular health education’s foundations and principles.
Health Education; Consumer Participation;
Qualitative Research

1,2

O campo da saúde no Brasil constituiu-se como um terreno de intensos debates quando toma por foco a organização das políticas públicas para esta área. São muitos os sujeitos políticos que, com distintas inserções institucionais, constroem formulações