What is Social Medicine?
The fundamental idea of Social Medicine is that the structure of society, in interaction with culture and the actions of social actors, influences who will be healthy and who will get sick and ill, or dies, how and from what.
Societies have patterns of illness, according to their living conditions and often divergent conceptions of what constitutes health. How we go about caring for human suffering responds to culture as well as social and biological imperatives. In short, the biological human existence is inextricably a social matter.
The distinctive role of Latin American Social Medicine has both an active participant in the political arena defending health as a human right and creating a critical and autonomous thought.
Social Medicine studies populations as collective groups and not simply as an assortment of isolated individuals. It is, therefore, focused on health andsickness of social groups that live and work in specific ways, not on clinical diseases. Social Medicine examines the internal logic and social roles of health institutions. 1£ health care institutionshave had the capacity of reinforcing the existing social relations of domination; they can also develop alternatives to those relations.
Social Medicine looks at health and disease in arecursive manner. Health and health care do not exist in isolation; they are part of an historical process. Social Medicine emphasizes that cultural, social andhistorical processes are the "material base" from whichthe "symbolic order" is built and that health and health care and actions for both, individuals and social groups are part of both.
Human praxis, which includes the interweaving between material base and symbolic order and political activism, allows for approaches to health that do not merely describe reality, but also promote social justice and equity, defending health as a human right. In many ways we work as a traditional academic journal, following the codes of the IJCE, using a system of rigorous peer review and focusing on scientific papers. However, there are important differences: we do not accept advertising nor funding from drug companies.
Social Medicine seeks to develop a methodology that enriches both quantitative and qualitative methodologies with historical and culturual perspectives that take into account collective actions to overcome the limitations of the reductionist approaches of the positivistic view of clinical medicine and public health. Social Medicine has a rich historic legacy. The current debates on health inequalities and the promoting of equity have been significant contributions of social medicine. Social Medicine assumes that any discussion regarding health today is inevitably an international and political issue.
Social Medicine
This journal addresses a global audience at an international level. Thus, we will publish the contributions in English and Spanish, without cost to the authors. Academic journals have largely been in the hands of developed countries. We recognize this and organize the journal to be able to welcome authors and readers from a variety of countries.
We intend to use peer reviews not only as a means of assuring quality, but also to mentor non Englishs-peaking authors, helping them to overcome the hurdles in seeking to have their work published in the international health literature. We intend to offer too space to papers that are not welcome in other journals for their political remarks or social-medical perspectives. It is our hope that papers that would otherwise not get printed, may appear in this journal.
Social Medicine supports and promotes activism and political organization to achieve the World Health Organization goals of "Health for All" and the holistic health perspective of the WHO charter. For us, health is a fundamental human right that should be promoted by universal public systems of health care. The journal will produce materials that are strong scientifically, intellectually honest, free of commercial biases, dearly written and well presented. Access to the journal will remain free for both: authors and readers.
Social Medicine is published on a quarterly basis, simultaneously in English and Spanish. The journal is scheduled for January, April, July and October. In many ways we work as a traditional academic journal, following the codes of the IJCE, using a system of rigorous peer review and focusing on scientific papers. However, there are important differences: we do not accept advertising nor funding from drug companies.
Thanks to the availability of the free electronic journal software Open Journal Systems and to the fact that the editors work as volunteers ad honorem, we can work on a relatively small budget. So, we do not charge authors nor readers and we do not accept advertisements. However, because of the significant translating and copy-editing expenses, we gladly accept and thank you for donations. We stand for the Copyright agreement that allows non-commercial reproduction of our papers, except where otherwise is dearly indicated.
Authors are welcome to submit their work and experiences to the following sections:
Their work will be translated into English or Spanish and published in both languages.
For more specific information, please visit our website:
http://www.socialmedicine.info
Editors
Matthew Anderson
Florencia Peña Saint Martin
Editorial Board
Marcos Arana-Cedeño
Gonzalo Basile
Alexis Benos
Felipe C. Cabello
Claudia Chaufan
Óscar Feo
Antonio Hernádez-Reyes
Martin Donohue,
Víctor Penchaszadeh,
Claudio Schuftan
Nancy Sohler
Lanny Smith
Seiji Yamada
Howard Waitzkin
