Cartography of the perception of the social determinants of health in Rosario, Argentina

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze and exercise the perception of the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) in teachers of Kinesiology and Bio-imaging Production of the Universidad Abierta Interamericana (UAI), Rosario, Argentina. The methodology developed was action research, the data collection techniques chosen were social mapping, direct observation and semi-structured interviews, the sample consisted of sixty teachers. The process showed that there are two types of emerging categories related to the perception process: some are consequent to the analysis and reflection from a dimension that considers socio-economic, cultural and environmental conditions, such as the inequitable distribution of wealth, corruption and corporate power, and others are the effect of the emotional impact linked to mobility and insecurity that teachers perceive as they move around the city. The results of this experience indicate that the collective dialogic encounters proved to be adequate strategies for the exercise of perceptual acuity, as a practice that promotes the transition from naive magical thinking to critical political thinking, and thus not only increase the vocabulary and interpret the most central, disturbing and urgent problems that determine the health of the population but also promote their transformation.