[The incorporation of a historical perspective in the health field: reconstructing the past or discussing the present?]

The purpose a call for papers on "History and health" at Salud Colectiva was to contribute to the development of a historical perspective on health-disease processes. We are therefore interested in calling on the perspectives of history and the social sciences to shed light on the fact that both the definition of health conditions as well as populations' possibilities for accessing essential healthcare services are the result of social processes in which knowledge, ideology, politics, and interests come into play - far from a simple reflection of objective biomedical conditions. This implies, on the one hand, that the definition of which of a population's health problems are to be attended to - as well as how, where, and who is responsible for them - is the result of relations among diverse actors (healthcare professionals, public officials, firms, users, among others), and these relations are not free of conflict. At the same time, these actors mobilize the institutional frameworks, professional knowhow, and economic interests that they represent. On the other hand, the unequal distribution of economic, symbolic, and cultural resources implies differential access to healthcare services, both for individuals and for social groups.