The risk concept and its limits are discussed as a technical-scientific construct for representing reality and as a support device for social intervention. The historical evolution of epidemiology and the risk concept is related to the idea of social arbitration among population groups. The possibility of appropriating this concept for expanding perceptions and strengthening social responses to life and health situations is examined in the light of pedagogical experience based on the perspective of popular health education using community health agents in a peripheral urban locality. It is argued that participatory educational processes increase the sharing of knowledge and the capacity to critically analyze the multiple relationships between health problems and local-general contexts of life. The issue of social arbitration in response to limiting situations is brought out again.
Community health agents; Concept formation; Health education; Risk