Ator social e as investigações em saúde: olhar para nova contribuição teórica

This study aims to investigate the concept of social actor in collective health. For that, 1,830 articles, thesis, and dissertations were identified in the databases Lilacs, SciELO, Web of Science, and PubMed, as well as in the Catalogue of Theses and Dissertations of the Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination (CAPES). Articles were selected based on the following criteria: (1) pertaining to the field of collective health; (2) defining or conceptualizing “social actor”; (3) adopting a conceptual perspective that constitutes social action; (4) utilizing social action associated with the concept/notion of “social actor” as theoretical framework; (5) consisting of a theoretical study on the subject or including empirical data from research processes; and (6) being conducted in Latin America and the Caribbean. After analysis and evaluation, 18 documents were included in this review. In these studies, the “actors” of health actions were classified using different nomenclatures, including several authors in the field of social sciences. Moreover, most of the works combined theoretical references in different manners. Translation theory comprises a theoretical possibility little explored in the field of collective health, presenting a brief review of the actor-network theory. In conclusion, the various theories dialoguing with collective health seek to explain the various aspects of the subject performing the action, but much study on this matter is still to be produced.v