Intervention research is a transdisciplinary field in which have participated social sciences, human sciences and health sciences. These studies are concerned to construct evidence about intervention practices. The approach and methods are variables, depending of scientific paradigm. Therefore, here we presented a critical analysis of papers about social intervention. The review was done with 70 papers of scientific journals published since 2007 until 2016. In it we track emerging topics, identifying regularities, ruptures, conclusions and issues to discuss. Results shows that social intervention has been a social problems solution strategy since XIX until today. But in its history, social intervention practices have promoted relations and discourses which produce kinds of governmentality and subjectivation.