Knowledge Challenge – Qualitative Research in Health. Maria Cecília de Souza Minayo. São Paulo: Hucitec/Rio de Janeiro: Abrasco, 1992. 269 p., bibliography. (Brochura) ISBN 85-271-0181-5 Cr$ 85.000,00 The author provides a successful analysis of different theoretical and methodological approaches in Social Sciences, particularly in the field of medicine and health. Her main concern is qualitative approaches and the possibility of knowledge generated from field research. This is a highly important topic, proposed at a time when there is a crisis in the theoretical traditions of the previous century, and in response to this crisis, there is a production of a narrow empiricism. The book consists of an introduction, four chapters, and a conclusion. In the introduction, the author acknowledges that the qualitative level found in sociological and anthropological data occurs at a deeper level of social reality, and that this level cannot be operationalized in numbers and variables, but can still be experienced, researched, and known. She criticizes both positivism, which limits reality to objective, measurable facts, and the Comprehensive Sociology, which loses the notion of social totality in the particular. Between these two positions, the Marxist dialectic is assumed as capable of containing both objective and subjective aspects of reality, thus encompassing the partial truths of those theories. The author focuses on the field of health, emphasizing that it must be observed in relation to the broader economic, political, and social reality it is part of. This requires considering social classes, dominant ideologies and worldviews, and the specificities of the mode of production, influencing both the organization of health systems and the strategies established between social groups and classes in the context of health and disease. The first chapter, focusing on the three main theoretical traditions of Social Sciences – positivism, comprehensive sociology, and dialectical materialism – is a didactic introduction to social research methodology. The author criticizes the conservative nature of positivism, which limits reality to its quantitative aspect, but also highlights its contribution to knowledge and research, especially in the analysis of large populations. She notes that although positivism is currently conservative or even reactionary, it was revolutionary in the 18th century by placing itself in a critical position relative to the oligarchic state and feudal power. This observation shows that the meaning of knowledge depends on the context in which it is manifested. The author characterizes the functional-structuralist model as somewhat simplified, as it does not consider its more modern version, which went beyond the classical schema represented by Parsons, Malinowski, and Radcliffe-Brown. Authors like Evans Pritchard, Mary Douglas, Max Gluckman, Victor Turner, and Edmond Leach, for example, include concepts like conflict, social movement, manipulation of reality by social actors, and cultural andKnowledge Challenge – Qualitative Research in Health. Maria Cecília de Souza Minayo. São Paulo: Hucitec/Rio de Janeiro: Abrasco, 1992. 269 p., bibliography. (Brochura) ISBN 85-271-0181-5 Cr$ 85.000,00 The author provides a successful analysis of different theoretical and methodological approaches in Social Sciences, particularly in the field of medicine and health. Her main concern is qualitative approaches and the possibility of knowledge generated from field research. This is a highly important topic, proposed at a time when there is a crisis in the theoretical traditions of the previous century, and in response to this crisis, there is a production of a narrow empiricism. The book consists of an introduction, four chapters, and a conclusion. In the introduction, the author acknowledges that the qualitative level found in sociological and anthropological data occurs at a deeper level of social reality, and that this level cannot be operationalized in numbers and variables, but can still be experienced, researched, and known. She criticizes both positivism, which limits reality to objective, measurable facts, and the Comprehensive Sociology, which loses the notion of social totality in the particular. Between these two positions, the Marxist dialectic is assumed as capable of containing both objective and subjective aspects of reality, thus encompassing the partial truths of those theories. The author focuses on the field of health, emphasizing that it must be observed in relation to the broader economic, political, and social reality it is part of. This requires considering social classes, dominant ideologies and worldviews, and the specificities of the mode of production, influencing both the organization of health systems and the strategies established between social groups and classes in the context of health and disease. The first chapter, focusing on the three main theoretical traditions of Social Sciences – positivism, comprehensive sociology, and dialectical materialism – is a didactic introduction to social research methodology. The author criticizes the conservative nature of positivism, which limits reality to its quantitative aspect, but also highlights its contribution to knowledge and research, especially in the analysis of large populations. She notes that although positivism is currently conservative or even reactionary, it was revolutionary in the 18th century by placing itself in a critical position relative to the oligarchic state and feudal power. This observation shows that the meaning of knowledge depends on the context in which it is manifested. The author characterizes the functional-structuralist model as somewhat simplified, as it does not consider its more modern version, which went beyond the classical schema represented by Parsons, Malinowski, and Radcliffe-Brown. Authors like Evans Pritchard, Mary Douglas, Max Gluckman, Victor Turner, and Edmond Leach, for example, include concepts like conflict, social movement, manipulation of reality by social actors, and cultural and