Science, Health and Individual Subjectivities: Health Publics

Abstract

This article builds on current debates on modern science and its relationship to individuals in terms of the problematization of health as it occurs at the intersection of its public dimension (as linked to the scientific and biomedical paradigm) and an individual, subjective and lay experience. Based on reflections arising in these debates on the crises of science and ‘science publics,’ we analyze some of the social transformations that have occurred in the field of health that are also framed by a moment of crisis, problematizing the relationship that laymen have with the knowledge and practices of health in contemporary Western societies. We bring the concept of ‘publics’ to this debate, which suggests the exploration of ‘health publics.’ This concept has the potential to be useful for the analysis of the relationship of a growing group of informed, reflexive, participatory and critical individuals to the knowledge and practices of health in this period of late modernity.