Social movements in the production of healthy, sustainable, and health-promoting territories: a scoping review

Health promotion and surveillance, encompassing environmental and occupational aspects, and grounded in a participatory, territory-based approach, integrate a set of concepts designed to support interventions addressing health issues experienced by populations within their own territories (Oliveira; Machado, 2026). The setting where surveillance and health promotion converge is almost invariably the territory, which serves as a central category for analyzing health-disease-care processes. This is because the territory extends beyond its geographical and material dimensions, incorporating social relations, identities, ways of life, cultural practices, and the processes involved in the production and reproduction of life (Santos, 2005). Understanding health-disease-care processes within a specific territory requires an interdependence between health surveillance, which seeks to identify risks, threats, and vulnerabilities affecting populations, and health promotion, which aims to intervene in the determinants that influence living conditions. These approaches encompass various fields of action, including epidemiology, public health, environmental health, and occupational health. Their combined efforts contribute to the prevention of health issues, the reduction of risks, and the development of responses tailored to the specific needs of these territories (Teixeira, 2002; Oliveira & Machado, 2026). The primary milestone in defining health promotion globally is the Ottawa Charter (WHO, 1986), developed at the First International Conference on Health Promotion, which posits an expanded concept of health, one encompassing quality of life. Health is linked to access to culture, leisure, sports, work, employment, income, education, housing, social assistance, and healthy environments, among various other dimensions that serve as determinants for the living and health conditions of populations, communities, and territories (Brazil, 2018). Furthermore, promoting health on a global scale has entailed developing intersectoral and participatory actions that enhance the autonomy of individuals and communities, strengthening their collective capacities and contributing to the transformation of the conditions that generate inequalities (Brazil, 2018). After all, no one falls ill or recovers alone; everyone falls ill and recovers collectively, within a community (Teixeira, 2002; Oliveira; Machado, 2026). This expanded conception highlights that health promotion cannot be understood as the exclusive responsibility of health services and professionals; rather, its realization depends on recognizing the diverse ways of being and existing in the world, constructed within specific territories and shaped by socio-environmental determinants (Breilh, 2006). For instance, communities, grassroots leaders, civil society organizations, social movements, cultural groups, environmental collectives, and other forms of collective action can play fundamental roles in identifying problems, advocating for rights, mobilizing resources, and developing responses to local needs. By integrating scientific and popular knowledge, these initiatives help to broaden social participation and strengthen the capacity of populations to intervene in the processes that affect their health and living conditions. The role of social movements takes on particular significance in this context, as these collectives can link local demands to broader agendas, such as social justice, equity, environmental protection, and the safeguarding of rights, that remain under-explored in the literature. Identifying experiences within this field can inform the formulation of participatory, socially just, and epidemiologically efficient policies, drawing upon the knowledge and practices rooted in specific territories. Accordingly, this article aims to map studies that examine how social movements have fostered health promotion and contributed to the creation of healthy and sustainable territories globally.