Resumo Neste artigo, exploramos o desenvolvimento e a consolidação do conhecimento especializado em medicina social, que se constituiu como o arcabouço intelectual das políticas de saúde no Chile durante a primeira metade do século XX. O objetivo central descreve e analisa os debates e formas de sociabilidade que os médicos desenvolveram, caracterizando as modelos de ingerência na esfera pública, consideradas partes fundamentais de uma ação política que legitimou certas perspectivas de análise e propostas legislativas, que estavam na base dos debates a respeito da definição do papel do Estado e da previdência. Por meio da análise documental de iniciativas de direito, opinião pública, periódicos especializados e sociabilidade intelectual, aborda-se a configuração histórica da legitimidade tecnocrática no Chile contemporâneo, que marcou um tipo de intervenção da sociedade civil por meio da constituição de agendas e propostas para a solução dos problemas descritos como "públicos".

Abstract In this article we explore the development and consolidation of expert knowledge in social medicine, which was constituted as the intellectual framework of health policies in Chile during the first half of the twentieth century. The central objective describes and analyze the debates and forms of sociability that the doctors developed, characterizing the forms of interference in the public sphere, considered as fundamental parts of a political action that legitimized certain perspectives of analysis and legislative proposals, that were in the base of the debates regarding their definition of the role of the State and the welfare. Through the documentary analysis of initiatives of law, public opinion, expert journals and intellectual sociability, the historical configuration of the technocratic legitimacy in contemporary Chile is approached, which marked a type of intervention of the civil society through the constitution of agendas and proposals for the solution of those problems described as "public".

El estudio de las elites parlamentarias en espacios regionales abre un conjunto de problemáticas que permiten indagar en las relaciones entre su capital social, los espacios de sociabilidad y su poder político. A través de una combinación de fuentes de corte biográfico, publicaciones bibliográficas, boletines industriales, empresariales y datos electorales, este artículo se introduce en la historia política del Gran Concepción y desde allí permite repensar varias tesis que se han indicado sobre el desarrollo electoral e ideológico de la cultura política nacional. Así para los años que se extienden entre 1957 y 1973 se interroga ¿cuáles son los espacios de sociabilidad más importantes en el perfil del parlamentario electo en el Gran Concepción? ¿Se pueden establecer caracterizaciones de un perfil sociobiográfico que permita comprender quién debe ser electo por las comunidades partidarias? ¿Podemos afirmar la existencia de una cultura política regional, en la que ciertos factores se vuelvan centrales para comprender este espacio como generador de elites parlamentarias?

The study of congressional elites in regional spaces unfolds a wide array of problems which allow for the understanding of issues as varied as the ways in which political capital is accumulated as for the nature of regional, spaces of sociability and party cultures. Through the combined use of a variety of sources -such as biographies, bibliographical publications, entrepreneurial and industrial bulletins and electoral records- this article explores in the political history of the Gran Concepción in Southern Chile. The results obtained have allowed for the revision of several hypotheses about the country’s electoral and ideological culture. Thus, for the years between 1957 and 1973 the questions posed are: How have, historically, the political capitals of members of Congress representing the Gran Concepción been built? Which distinctive features has this space and has this distinctiveness had influence in the emergence of political elites? Is it possible to sustain that there is a regional political culture? And finally, is there a relationship is there a relationships between state institutions, spaces of sociability and social networks in the construction of the political capital of the most important members of Congress representing the region?