HEALTH PROMOTION INTERNATIONAL C Oxford University Press 1996 Vol. 11, No. 2 Printed in Great Britain Towards a critical social science perspective on health promotion research JOAN EAKIN, ANN ROBERTSON, BLAKE POLAND, DAVID COBURN and RICHARD EDWARDS Department of Behavioural Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S1A8 SUMMARY As part of our on-going efforts to formulate an alterna- tive paradigm for health promotion research, we discuss an approach that we have called a 'critical social science perspective' (CSSP). This perspective consists of a set of 'reflexive' questions concerning the implicit assump- tions and ideology underlying the research process, and the role ofpower, contradiction and dialectical relation- ships in theory and research practice. The paper briefly outlines key features of a CSSP and models its applica- Key words: critical social science perspective; health promotion; research tion to health promotion research by examining why and how smoking among young girls has emerged as a research issue. We illustrate how the 'problem' of young girls smoking has been construed in terms ofepidemio- logical evidence, scientific imperative, flawed strategy, feasibility, symbolic appeal, vested interests and resist- ance. A CSSP reveals the socio-political construction of research problems. The paper reflects on the implica- tions of adopting such a stance to research. This is a plea to get the politics out of hiding. (Tesh, 1990) INTRODUCTION The 1993 Annual Health Promotion Research Conference in Canada ended with a call for the development of a solid scientific base for health promotion practice and policy, and for rigorous research and evaluation. However, as research- ers, we have felt increasingly doubtful whether the research envisaged in this appeal—including research in both positivist and constructivist traditions—is adequate for the 'new' health pro- motion (Eakin and Maclean, 1992; Poland, 1992; Robertson and Minkler, 1994), particularly its focus on reducing inequities in access to health through addressing the determinants of health (Labonte and Robertson, 1994). We also sense that many practitioners perceive a disjuncture between research knowledge and their real-life experiences with health promotion practice. Much current research presumes that science is a relatively neutral and non-ideological instru- ment for discovering 'reality'. Although this notion of science has been questioned for two decades or more in other fields, such as philo- sophy (Kuhn, 1970, Longjno, 1990), it still appears to be the predominant perspective in health promotion. We propose that an alternative approach to research is needed if researchers are to produce knowledge that can assist in bringing about the kinds of changes to which the health promotion movement aspires. In recent years, some authors have sought to develop an appropriate theoretical framework for health promotion (see, for example, Caplan, 1993), while others have critically examined the new health promotion (see, for example, Grace, 1991; Stevenson, and Burke, 1992; Labonte, 1994; Robertson and Minkler, 1994), and health 157