Book Reviews Allow Critical Evaluation of Reference Works

Ricardo Luiz Lorenzi, Associate Editor, Brazilian Journal of Occupational Health, Fundação Jorge Duprat Figueiredo de Segurança e Medicina do Trabalho, (Fundacentro), Florianópolis, SC, Brazil. 

Get to work! Let’s build pathways for reviews

Attention, please! Traffic will be blocked for that typically “paulistano” slang connotation for the word « RESENHA » (according to Soares, 2015) i.e. that which means chat, a meeting with a unpretentious conversation. And also for that other one, also widespread in Brazil, but depreciative: blah – blah, bullshit. For, even though—in a more formal sense—« RESENHA » denotes a literary genre that involves a detailed, meticulous description of a literary opus (not necessarily technical-scientific; maybe a novel, for instance), the sense conveyed here will be that of a critical review, discarding the laudatory or merely apologetic and uncritical meaning of the term.

As a matter of fact, there is another portuguese word – « RECENSÃO » – that would better describe the intended meaning. Actually, it can be said rather interchangeable to the term « RESENHA », but the first is unquestionably more usual in Portugal than in Brazil. Anyway, be it this or that, a Book review is a valuable resource in the face of the explosion of technical and scientific literature and the limited time available for contemporary intellectual work – according to Lakatos e Marconi (2010). In this sense, it is assumed that the book review shortens distances in part of the cognitive path towards S&T knowledge.

In the strict editorial scope of Health Sciences, the term « RESENHA » (book review) has a precise definition, which designates:

“Work consisting of critical analyses of books or other monographic works.” (Opas/Bireme, 2025). Book review, Reseñas de Libros, Compte rendu d’ouvrage – are the corresponding terms in English, Spanish and French, respectively.

Image: Via Infopedia

Figure 1. The portuguese term «RESENHA» (with the sense of Book review)

Therefore, this term refers to that set of texts that contribute to the dissemination of knowledge and relevant information in Health, but always taken from a critical perspective.

This is the case of the book review published in Brazilian Journal of Occupational Health/Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional (RBSO) that we will address at the end, as an example of the modality.

Well, we should admit that a stigma surrounds book reviews, that of being “second-class citizens” of scientific literature, but there are also those who see in them a hermeneutical virtue of their own, in the sense of grasping what is valuable in an academic field—that is, discerning what work is noteworthy and what values are at stake in it (Obeng-Odoom, 2014).

Undoubtedly there are those who see them as a genre unique to Academia, a kind of idiosyncrasy that is more frequent in some areas of human knowledge than in others (Hartley, 2006). In any case, it is a two-way street, which can be followed by researchers who enjoy discussing their readings, adding their personal critical tone, in favor of what they consider to be enriching for a broader reading, i.e., that of the phenomenological reality that surrounds the reviewed work.

Literacy in the field of Public Health in general (as in OSH issues, in particular) according to Porto & Almeida, (2002) and Roquete et al (2023) is part of a continuous learning process that can be supported—and even emotionally motivated—through the use of critical bookreviews. Especially in the field of Workers’ Health (OSH)—with its kaleidoscope of applied sciences and its various polytechnics—the book review still persists nowadays and is far from succumbing.

Interdisciplinarity demands extensive reading. Familiarizing yourself with (or equipping yourself with) the background of various social and human sciences helps the healthcare team interact effectively to understand and intervene in the health-disease process, including their own (Posser, et al., 2013). Political scientists, economists, psychologists and health service administrators, in turn, should be encouraged to become familiar with the general paradigms and perhaps the most important methodological references of Occupational Hygiene and Epidemiology in order to fully understand the determining role of work in this process.

We can refer to Nutbeam’s literacy—“a set of skills that develops, within the set of social practices, seeking to give meaning to the knowledge produced and shared about health” which can be applied interactively by social actors in this field of applied knowledge (Peres, 2023). This involves the worker himself, who is the fundamental actor – individually or as a collective subject. Or refer to the model of Zarcadoolas and collaborators (2005) on a more theoretical basis: the scientific domain of literacy, related to the knowledge of concepts and processes specific to science, as well as their functioning and technical complexity.

Imagem: Via Microsoft Word Picture Library

In short, the aim of the book review is to value pre-reading and literacy, putting the most varied topics into discussion. For RBSO, this is an educational facet of editorial “techné,” seen as the healthy and pro-andragogic attitude of “being-in-the-world”, the incessant transit of the “lebenswelt,” in light of the continuous transformations of the world of work. This perspective is part of what we are proposing with the Project “Additional communication as part of the bibliometric qualification and editorial improvement strategy of an OSH journal” released for the 2025-26 biennium.

As part of this project we should mention a review of « Redonner du Sens au Travail: une aspiration révolutionnaire » authored by French economists Thomas Coutrot and Coralie Perez; he is a researcher at the Institut de Recherches Économiques et Sociales (IRES, France) and she is researchers at the Sorbonne – Université Paris – 1.

In the book, Coutrot and Perez face the challenges of interdisciplinarity to offer us a very precise (and precious) examination of a value that seems to be rapidly fainting in the disruptive contemporary world: the Meaning of Work. And further – what this decline represents for public health as the associated psychosocial risks worsen over time. The authors will show us that there is a widespread misconception surrounding the meaning of work: that only the most qualified workers can afford to find it and realize their value. And they will demonstrate this based on a pioneering econometric study, applying a statistical modeling (also developed by them) to French surveys data. Among other results, they show that the risk of worker depression can reach two-fold when there is a loss of meaning in work.

The review was published in Portuguese under the title Restituir o sentido do trabalho – uma aspiração revolucionária, and in English was titled Making work meaningful again: A revolutionary aspiration, both in RBSO 50^th volume (2025).

To read the article, access

Lorenzi, R.L. Making work meaningful again: A revolutionary aspiration (Book review of: Coutrot T, Perez C. Redonner du sens au travail: une aspiration révolutionnaire). Rev Bras Saude Ocup [online]. 2025, vol. 50, e2 [viewed 7 November 2025]. https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-6369/19924en2025v50e2. Available from: https://www.scielo.br/j/rbso/a/cnfKjdf9JTyQZctFPjbPnPc/

References

Coutrot, T. and Perez, C. Redonner du sens au travail: une aspiration révolutionnaire. Paris: Seuil, 2022.

Hartley, J. Reading and Writing Book Reviews Across the Disciplines. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology [online]. 2006, vol. 57, no. 9, p. 1194–1207 [viewed 7 November 2025]. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20399. Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/asi.20399

Lakatos, E. and Marconi, M.A. Fundamentos de Metodologia Científica – 7ª ed. São Paulo: Atlas, 2010.

Obeng-Odoom, F. Why write book reviews? The Australian Universities’ Review [online]. 2014, vol. 56, no. 1, p. 78-82 [viewed 7 November 2025]. Available from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1017964

Peres, F. Alfabetização, letramento ou literacia em saúde? Traduzindo e aplicando o conceito de health literacy no Brasil. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva [online]. 2023, vol. 28, no. 5, p. 1563-73. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232023285.14562022.  Available from: https://www.scielo.br/j/csc/a/cdmwH5gd66VNCXhVQJXJ3KD/

Porto, M.F. and Almeida G.E.S. Significados e limites das estratégias de integração disciplinar: uma reflexão sobre as contribuições da saúde do trabalhador. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva [online]. 2002, vol. 7, no. 2, p. 335-347 [viewed 7 November 2025]. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-81232002000200013. Available from: https://www.scielo.br/j/csc/a/PpMFcKTQtxZbBN34nsmXMfF/

Prosser, B., Tuckey, M. and Wendt, S. Affect and the lifeworld: Conceptualising surviving and thriving in the human service professions. Health Sociology Review [online]. 2013, vol. 22, no. 3, p. 318–27 [viewed 7 November 2025]. https://doi.org/10.5172/hesr.2013.22.3.318. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.5172/hesr.2013.22.3.318

Roquete, F.F. Multidisciplinaridade, interdisciplinaridade e transdisciplinaridade: em busca de diálogo entre saberes no campo da saúde coletiva. R. Enferm. Cent. O. Min [online]. 2012, vol. 2, no. 3, p. 463-74 [viewed 7 November 2025]. Available from: https://seer.ufsj.edu.br/recom/article/view/245

Soares, R. Roda de resenha é o novo bate-papo da periferia [online]. UOL, 2015 [viewed 7 November 2025] Available from: https://agora.folha.uol.com.br/saopaulo/2015/06/1642152-roda-de-resenha-e-o-novo-bate-papo-da-periferia.shtml

Zarcadoolas, C. Pleasant, A. Greer, D.S. Understanding health literacy: an expanded model. Health Promotion International, 2005, vol. 20, no. 2, p. 195–203 [viewed 7 November 2025].  https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dah609.  Available from: https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article-abstract/20/2/195/827483?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Links Externos

Biblioteca vitual em saúde

Infopedia

Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional – RBSO

Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional (Fundacentro)

Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional – X