French Guiana, a French territory in South America, lies at the crossroads of multiple healthcare systems – biomedicine, phytotherapies, and ethnomedicines –which complement, overlap or sometimes conflict. Health is therefore examined beyond purely biological or epidemiological perspectives, taking into account the cultural and social representations that shape health behaviors.This article explores the effects of the growing integration of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) into healthcare practices and health research, drawing on the shared experiential knowledge of researchers working in French Guiana between 2021 and 2025. Led by the Institute of Health and Population in Amazonia at the University Hospital Center of French Guiana, the study mobilizes observations, feedback from field experiences, and interdisciplinary exchanges to identify and discuss recurrent issues in dialogue with international literature.Results show that SSH integration enhances therapeutic dialogue and extends biomedical approaches by clarifying the social and cultural logics shaping care practices. However, several challenges remain, including the dominance of quantitative frameworks, institutional recognition issues, and epistemological biases. Ongoing initiatives in French Guiana seek to overcome these limits by strengthening dialogue across knowledge systems. While particularly relevant locally, these dynamics also provide a laboratory for rethinking research frameworks and clinical practices at a national scale toward greater relevance and effectiveness.
Sociological research in the fields of ageing and psychiatry generally tends to portray institutions as undesirable places shaped by mechanisms of domination. Drawing on the intersection of two ethnographic studies — one conducted in psychiatric institutions and the other in facilities for older adults — this article instead examines the epistemological and political stakes involved in conducting research in “exemplary field sites.” These field sites notably reopen the question of expectations regarding the distancing operations — whether critical or otherwise — that are characteristic of sociological perspectives and, more broadly, of the social sciences and humanities. The article seeks to define the notion of exemplary field sites while highlighting the specific features of each research site. It reflects on fieldwork practices in relation to the construction of the research object, the specific nature of the data collected, and the trajectories and working conditions of the researchers. Finally, it discusses the dilemmas encountered by the authors, who, while while remaining attentive to academic standards, also engaged in epistemological shifts shaped by their relationship to these exemplary field sites.
Based on an analysis of the roles assigned to a team of four sociologists working in various settings providing support to people with autism, as part of a program called “Social Skills Training Group”, the article highlights three distinct roles that provide a better understanding of the structure of the field of autism. We see the figures of the volunteer researcher in a parents' association – as a symbol of intimate and unprofessional support; the expert-practitioner in a private practice – invited to provide services and monetize skills within a market framework; and the distant observer in a hospital setting, invited to refrain from intervention in a structured space, who must legitimize his own expertise.
This article examines the challenges associated with the ambiguity of the ethnographic position in the social sciences, more specifically within the field of health, focusing on how this distinct and context-specific place – shaped by the negotiations and shifts that occur in relation to each field site – was negotiated in two french residential treatment centers for substance use disorders (CTR). This comparative ethnography explores the choices made between rejecting assigned roles, engaging oneself, and sharing that engagement, in order to refine a stance characterized by a commitment in the “in-between”– a stance particularly important in institutions working with individuals commonly regarded as deviant. After analyzing the (objective) spaces and (subjective) stances I was able to establish in both field sites in response to the expectations of the various participants, I seek to demonstrate that the research process is not incompatible with forms of collaboration involving all key actors within healthcare institutions.
This article examines the recognition of experiential knowledge among incarcerated individuals within the Tabapri interventional research project, conducted between December 2019 and December 2024, whose objective was to reduce tobacco-related harms in French prisons. Based on a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with incarcerated persons and professionals, followed by focus groups to co-construct the intervention, it explores how prisoners participate in rethinking public health interventions within the constrained context of detention. By highlighting the tensions between disciplinary logics and health objectives, the article advocates for a situated approach to knowledge production, one that is attentive to lived realities, the capacities for action, and the aspirations of individuals. It suggests considering intervention research as an ethical space for negotiation, allowing for the preservation of dignity and collective reflexivity despite the constraints of the carceral environment.
Capdroits has been established as a Mixed Research Community (MRC) bringing together people living with disabilities or illness, professionals, and researchers. This article analyzes the dynamics of co-production and knowledge circulation that have emerged within this community. Drawing on a collection of documents and interviews, it shows that the MRC relies on a variety of participatory mechanisms, notably local research groups and Cap’Labs, which facilitate dialogue between diverse forms of knowledge, particularly through storytelling. The analysis highlights processes of recognition of experiential knowledge and tensions linked to the heterogeneity of actors, both between and within the groups to which they belong. The MRC is discussed as an epistemic community in motion, capable of producing effects in terms of empowerment and health.
Interdisciplinarity between the humanities, social sciences and medicine is now widely promoted in health research. But what impact does it have on the careers of researchers who engage in interdisciplinary collaboration? Based on the results of a research project using qualitative methods, this article highlights the different effects of involvement in interdisciplinary collaborations on the career paths of researchers. The study of three contrasting trajectories provides an insight into the diversity of configurations of ‘entry’ into interdisciplinarity. Among the concrete ways in which collaborations are constructed, the co-construction of research projects acts as a determining factor in the commitment to interdisciplinary collaborations, among other relationships of power and legitimacy. Interdisciplinary involvement transforms the relationship that researchers have with their original discipline, between asserted continuities, assumed displacements and areas of tension. These different issues, which can sometimes create uncomfortable situations, are nonetheless a driving force for creativity in research for those involved.
In the context of a so-called “collaborative” research project conducted in Morocco, we have experienced ongoing conflicts and misunderstandings between the various actors involved. In this article, we propose to conduct a critical analysis of the collaborative process implemented. Looking back on this experience will allow us to detail some social, ideological and institutional issues that structure and divide the disability field in Morocco. Recounting these conflictual situations will be an opportunity to examine the tensions and pitfalls that are ultimately quite common in participatory approach, and to question the role of conflictuality in this type of research.
This article analyzes the concepts of knowledge ecology and cognitive justice as analyzers of co-construction processes in social intervention and health care. The first part of the article problematizes these concepts, situating their origins in North-South reflections and their relevance to thinking about current issues, notably the involvement of users and patients, using examples from social intervention and health care. The second part looks at the contexts conducive to the emergence of knowledge ecologies; the cognitive justice perspective invites us to ask from what points of view these different types of knowledge and experience are valued. The third part draws consequences from these reflections from the point of view of action: while knowledge ecology rejects the hierarchies of knowledge arising from old and current systems of domination, it proposes a hierarchy of knowledge in context that enables action driven by a concern for consequences.
Due to overcrowding at the neonatal unit in Mayotte, newborn babies are sometimes transferred to hospitals on Reunion Island, another French overseas territory. These transfers are by air via the EVASAN medical evacuation system. This article is based on research conducted in a Reunion neonatology ward that receives transferred newborns, accompanied or not by their mothers. The article explores the impact on the practices and professional identities of nurses and nursery auxiliaries. These new patients arrive in a ward with limited resources, resulting in an increased workload. The presence of the mothers is deemed necessary for the well-being of the children. However, their being there introduces a social dimension to the hospital. This creates ethical tensions and blurs professional boundaries within a context where these patients are not considered a priority. It is also assumed that their care will be temporary.
The contemporary doxa of resilience encourages sick people to adopt a positive, combative and voluntary attitude, which is seen as a necessary condition for overcoming illness. The daily lives of today's patients are all the more governed by these implicit expectations because the majority of them are now affected by chronic illnesses. No longer confined to the sidelines of social life, these persons live alongside the healthy. Exposed to the gaze of health professionals and their loved ones alike, they are required to constantly demonstrate their fighting spirit. This involves emotional work aimed at concealing their vulnerabilities and difficulties, thereby preserving the ordinary quality of their interactions. Playing the role of good patient, which is sometimes at odds with their personal experiences, requires a great deal of effort and becomes an additional burden. By analysing the discourse of people living with cancer interviewed during a study devoted to fatigue, this article proposes a sociological examination of this symptom.
Reforms aimed at streamlining patient reception in emergency departments have led to the formalisation of triage processes and the creation of Triage Nurse positions. This article examines the impact of these reforms on the division of labor in triage, particularly highlighting the essential yet often invisible role of reception clerks. Conducted through ethnographic research in a rural French hospital, our findings reveal that while nurses are officially responsible for triage, this responsibility is often shared with doctors and reception clerks. We analyse how clerks, despite lacking clinical training, perform triage-related tasks under nurse supervision, including registering patients, alerting staff in emergencies, and handling admission refusals. However, their contributions remain largely invisible, reinforcing their professional isolation. This study demonstrates how the formalisation of one profession's responsibilities can obscure the critical, yet unrecognised, work of another group.
Emergency departments (ED) visits related to behavioural issues in children and adolescents have become a growing concern in most Western countries since the late 1990s. In the meantime, both social and clinical work have emphasized community treatment and service users' empowerment. We present the results of a multi-centric ethnographic fieldwork, exploring the interactions between child workers, paediatricians and psychiatrists in the ED. We present the categories used by these various professional groups to analyze their conceptions of the mental health crisis and its appropriate treatment. Results show that, while considered as unnecessary or useless, ED visits actually serve an inter-institutional regulatory function and help to develop a collective risk management. A tension arises between closed and open environments, autonomy and protection, revealing the problems of maintaining a continuous public action when secluded spaces open.
