Governance in public health as a strategy of government in the complexity. Thematic analysis of the arguments of public health professionals in Catalonia

Abstract

In this work we analyze the arguments that are articulated in the incorporation of the model of governance in health and its effects on the positions and relations between agents in public health policy design. We used thematic content analysis as the analytic strategy. Fieldwork is framed within the approval of the Public Health Law of Catalonia (Spain). We conducted 20 interviews to key informants. The results showed the identification of governance as the government strategy to increase the effectiveness of interventions in public health. Results also underlined the relevancy of the local sphere as a space in which actions regarding health are materialized as well as the role of expert knowledge in legitimizing autonomous institutions of health in positions of a greater power in the definition of public health discourses and of the direction of interventions.