Investigating the French healthcare system from the margins: an agenda for conducting research on health centers

This article presents the methodological and theoretical challenges identified by means of a collective sociological investigation focused on health centers in France. These little-known but rapidly growing structures offer an alternative to the dualism that exists between public hospitals and private outpatient care in this country. In addition to providing primary care, health centers carry out public health missions while employing all of their staff, both healthcare and non-healthcare workers. However, the statuses and operating modes of health centers are broad and varied, which means that studying them proves particularly complex, both quantitatively and qualitatively. This text presents the questions raised and attempts to overcome these difficulties. It also shows that this marginal entry point into the healthcare system is characterized by certain contradictions and unique issues, highlighting the importance of the meso-sociological scale, which is too often neglected by research in this area.