Education for health and social justice based on the focus on capabilities: An opportunity for public health development

• Published in: Ciência & saude coletiva Vol. 25; no. 4; p. 1539
• Main Author: Villa-Vélez, Lilliana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Brazil 01.03.2020
• Subjects: Aptitude; Health Education; Health Promotion - methods; Human Development; Human Rights; Humans; Personal Autonomy; Public Health - methods; Social Justice - education
• ISSN: 1678-4561; 1678-4561
• DOI: 10.1590/1413-81232020254.19052018

Theoretical research on health education is presented, which is proposed from an emancipatory perspective and constitutes an opportunity to promote health in communities because it makes it possible to explain a concept of social justice. The vision of social justice that is put forward in this article is focused on the capabilities that are understood as a set of real opportunities for people to achieve the life they aspire to. This approach is relevant for public health work because it is centered around human development, allows the subject to be incorporated into a dialectical relationship with society and focuses on real opportunities. The differences between public health approaches are considered to understand social justice and the relevance of a health concept that makes it possible to transcend the biomedical approach focused on disease. The importance of advancing towards a pedagogical development of health education that exceeds the perspective of education focused on behavioral changes is acknowledged, in order to understand it as a social and political process with an emancipatory humanist base as an opportunity for the construction of public health.