https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2018.1474174 RESEARCH PAPER Critical social science with public health: Agonism, critique and engagement Eric Mykhalovskiy a  , Katherine L. Frohlich b , Blake Poland c , Erica Di Ruggiero d , Melanie J. Rock e  and Leigha Comer a   a Department of Sociology, York University, Toronto, Canada; b École de Santé Publique de L’Université de Montréal & IRSPUM, Montréal, Canada; c Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada; d Social and Behavioural Health Sciences Division, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada; e Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada ABSTRACT This article is about a mode of scholarly practice we call critical social science with public health. The article responds to our dissatisfaction with established approaches to social science engagement with public health that have developed out of Straus’ early distinction between sociology in and of medicine. By critical social science with public health we mean a set of research practices that orients to epistemological and political diferences between social science and public health as productive opportunities. We draw on Moufe’s notion of agonism to ground our argument conceptually and on our collaborative research with tobacco control to substantively illustrate our case. As we imagine it, critical social science with public health unsettles knowledge relations that position social science either as a conceptual resource for public health or as a source of negative critique of public health activities. Critical social science with public health engages directly with public health actors, while remaining committed to the specifcity of social science theory and methodology. It aims to transform public health, often by seeking to lessen the harmful efects of public health practice, while, at the same time, contributing to critical social science scholarship. Introduction In North America, the post-Second World War era is often cited as ushering in a period of growing collaboration between social science and public health (Badgley, 1963; Straus, 1957; Suchman, 1963). Since that time, social scientists have engaged various theoretical and methodological perspectives in research on: the behavioural dimensions of health risks; the political, social and economic determinants of health, health inequalities and disease; and the impact of public health policy and program interven- tions, among other topics. While scholars have described the contributions made by this body of work (Schneiderman, 2001; Shinn et al., 2003; Susser, 1987), the forms of engagement with public health and the relationships between social science and public health upon which social science research is built have received far less attention (although see, for example, Trostle, 2005; Linder, 2004). ARTICLE HISTORY Received 17 November 2017 Accepted 21 April 2018 KEYWORDS Critique; public health; social theory © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group CONTACT Eric Mykhalovskiy ericm@yorku.ca CRITICAL PUBLIC HEALTH 2019, VOL. 29, NO. 5, 522–533