Critique in context: Pragmatic sociology's contribution to health research.

Authors

Catarina Delaunay, Luís Gouveia

Published in

Health (London, England : 1997). Pages 13634593261474434. Aug 13, 2026. Epub Aug 13, 2026.

Abstract

Since the 1990s, marked by Health's inaugural issue and the publication of Boltanski and Thévenot's De la justification, the Sociology of Health and Medicine has been shaped by traditions rooted in Critical Sociology, particularly Foucauldian, Marxist, and Bourdieusian paradigms. These frameworks have offered incisive critiques of power, biopolitics, medicalization, and neoliberal reframing of health responsibility. Concurrently, another sociological movement emerged through the development of French Pragmatic Sociology, or the "sociology of critical capacity." By foregrounding actors' justifications, plural conceptions of worth, and regimes of engagement, it reorients the analysis from structural domination to situated critique, one that is attuned to the complexity, uncertainty, and ambivalence of health-related action. It enables a relational, context-sensitive approach to the lived experiences of patients and professionals as they engage with institutional arrangements and enact critique within situated action. Drawing on a non-exhaustive, interpretive review of empirical studies engaging with Pragmatic Sociology, particularly in healthcare controversies, clinical decision-making, patient-professional interactions, and health innovation, this article shows how this perspective fosters nuanced understandings of normativity, critique, and coordination in health practices. It traces this theoretical realignment and argues that Pragmatic Sociology offers a compelling, flexible, and still underutilized epistemological and methodological framework for health research, sustaining and extending critique through an empirically grounded analysis.

PMID:
42591026
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Aug 2026.

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