Research Networks in Public Health: Requirements for Sustainability and Effectiveness - a Sociological Perspective

Abstract

The Public Health White Paper draws up a vision of public health as a living, decentralized network that can help improve the health of the population in a sustained fashion. However, the central question remains open as to which prerequisites public health networks should fulfill in order to be effective in the long term. The aim of this paper is to provide a sociological view of the issue and offer some discussion ideas. Parsons' structural functionalism leads to the thesis that science networks in public health require structures that ensure that the 4 basic functions of viable social networks - (1) adaptation, (2) goal attainment, (3) integration and (4) latent pattern maintenance - are fulfilled. On this theoretical basis, suggestions are made to establish functional formal structures in public health networks.