The notion of discourse in research on collective health: from methodological resource to theoretical approach

Abstract The dissemination of qualitative research methodologies in the field of Collective Health has been followed by the expansion in the use of discursive approaches. The effects of this increase have mobilized researchers in this field, be it through criticism of the epistemological abuses and weaknesses of its appropriation, through the distinction among the different schools of discourse analysis, or through the support of new research perspectives. In this article, I present a discussion about the ways to use the notion of discourse on the field, based on an analysis of a sample of 230 articles published by Brazilian authors between the 2014 and 2018, in 10 journals selected in the SciELO Public Health database. Characterized as a meta-research study, it highlights the theoretical-methodological frameworks, the discursive approaches, and the thematic universes to which the articles are affiliated. The multiplicity of perspectives is interpreted as an expression of the different traditions assimilated through the translation performed on the field. The prevalence of the methodological use, in the sense of a set of research rules and techniques, suggests the instrumentalization and incipient exploration of the notion of discourse. I end with an argument in favor of the potentiality of the post-structural discursive approaches –, and, in particular, with the Theory of Discourse by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe – for the research in the field of Collective Health.