Abstract

Several Latin-American authors (Breilh, Almeida Filho, Czeresnia, among others) and some Europeans (as Tognoni) argue critically about the ways of constructing knowledge in epidemiology. They coincide in pointing out the limitation of the expert eye to account for the processes collective health. They debate how to manage knowledge and mechanisms to coordinate the management of institutional knowledge to the collective management of knowledge, in order to generate conceptual and methodological tools to impact effectively on the life stage of communities. We hypothesise that co-management of knowledge, as inter-subjective process between academics and communities, promotes the transforming and democratising actions. In this regard, two national universities in the province of Cordoba, along with a local institution of healthcare built since 2008 an area of informal training, the Permanent Seminar of Epidemiology Community (EC), whose line of work is health as indicator of life, autonomy, knowledge and democracy in the communities. Participants are workers and health promoters from different districts of the province, members of community-based organizations and universities (students and teachers). In this context, it has been done during 2009–2010 a province-wide survey of experiences in community health, encouraging integration of community members to the EC research network. The progress made in terms of health monitoring and community organising around health is the subject of a manual about EC co-management of knowledge, and realises the real possibilities of achieving them.