PRESENTATION

We have the pleasure of presenting a new edition (n.46) of the journal Interface - Comunicação, Saúde e Educação.

The Dossier on Violence provides readers with three articles of an original and innovative nature that move the discussion forward in this field, which has been central to the debate on human rights and public health since the 1990s.

The first of these raises and addresses the issues of the notion of victim and construction of identity. This question arose within an empirical investigation on "lightning" assaults and brought out some interesting and opportune reflections for the whole field of knowledge and practices relating to the problem of violence as a topic that also correlates with health. The second article deals with giving visibility to deaths of women that can be classified as femicides, with emphasis on the political nature of these crimes and their characteristic of avoidable death. This study, of qualitative nature on data surveyed at police departments for women's defense, presents to us the cruelty and misogyny involved in these murders, which are here reconceptualized as femicides. The third article of this dossier deals with the challenge of understanding the fatal consequences of violence in two Brazilian municipalities. It uses an ecological model and qualitative methodology (with triangulation with quantitative data from a larger study that it forms part of) in order to cover the individual, relational, community and social dimensions of the phenomenon.

This edition of Interface also brings us critical studies relating to popular participation in SUS going beyond what has already been instituted (conceptualized as resistance movements or rhizomatic participation), and reviews of the literature on the identity of public health players in Brazil and on housing actions destined towards people with mental disorders in Brazil.

Furthermore, there are studies covering health communication and education from several perspectives: an article on action research relating to female smoking, with emphasis on the importance of shared knowledge and integration between academic and popular knowledge; a review on phytotherapy programs and actions within SUS, with emphasis on the importance of forming intersectoral perspectives and having community participation with incorporation of phytotherapy; and another article on the importance of expanding the way in which health communication is conceived in relation to so-called "healthy lifestyles" and their promotion, so as to go beyond an instrumental view of how this communication is conceived and implemented.

In relation to the dimensions of training, there is an interesting study on the meanings that physical education teachers attribute to the body and to aging, and how these representations influence their professional practice. Another study deals with home visits and their impact on students' humanistic and social training. Lastly, there is a study on joy and sadness in the work of community health agents, with analysis based on Espinosa's theory.

As can be seen, this edition once again confirms the creativity and vigor of the field, through the originality and critical perspective of the articles published.

This edition is completed with the Open Space section, book reviews and thesis abstracts, and also with an interesting interview that was conducted in Helsinki, Finland, in 2012, with the researcher Yrjö Engeström on the "Cultural-Historical Activity Theory". Based on the contributions from Vigostky, the interview details aspects of the third generation of this theory and its applications within research on education, health and communication.

We hope that you enjoy reading this edition, and that this set of texts will contribute, through each individual's reassessment of the material, towards raising new questions and critiques that link to transformation of practices.

Ana Flávia Pires Lucas D'Oliveira

Area Editor

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  15 Oct 2013
• Date of issue
  Sept 2013