Abstract

Empirical-analytic epidemiology builds its interpretive framework around categories like "place" and constructs layers of empirical association through modern GIS software. Critical epidemiology in Latin America questions this approach and articulates an innovative view of spatial health analysis that intertwines the contributions of philosophy, political economy, and social geography to rethink the social determination of urban-rural relationships and health. The dramatic loss of urban sustainability and the unhealthy relationship between industrialized conurbations and agro-industrial rural areas imply a loss of space for the healthy and sustainable reproduction of people and ecosystems. The acceleration of the development of economic monopolies on both sides of the urban-rural divide is transforming that conventional spatial-social distinction and blending the perverse effects of a greedy organization of social life in both agricultural and urban settings.