InTerACT: A Systemic Social Marketing Framework for Equitable Access and Social Justice

This research addresses inequalities in access to essential resources and services (food, health, energy, education). It shows that territorial and social access inequalities stem as much from structural determinants—such as supply chain organization, infrastructures, rules, and power relations—as from individual decisions. Focus of the Article The article repositions social marketing within a justice-oriented systemic perspective. Rather than focusing solely on information or awareness, the objective is to transform the access conditions that shape practices. The approach is explicitly audience-oriented, emphasizing lived experience, frictions, and renunciation; it calls for segmenting populations along access gradients, relies on strong theoretical grounding and formative research reasoning, rearticulates action levers beyond the traditional marketing mix, and introduces a learning- and evaluation-oriented logic. Research Question How can social marketing be rethought and operationalized to address "systemic" access problems from a social justice perspective, by articulating micro-, meso-, and macro-levels and rendering intervention levers actionable? Program Design/Approach The article introduces the InTerACT framework (Inclusive Territorial Action and Community Transformation), designed as a diagnostic and design tool. It begins with mapping the access system, identifies barriers and facilitators at each level (capabilities and empowerment at the micro level; coordination, trust, governance, and actor networks at the meso level; institutions, infrastructures, and policy instruments at the macro level), and then structures the analysis around three dimensions of justice (redistribution, recognition, representation). This process enables the derivation of a combinable portfolio of levers (institutional, environmental, community/partnership-based, behavioral, and communicational) and explicit, steerable purposes. Importance to the Social Marketing Field The main contribution is a unifying framework that reduces the overly individualistic bias of some social marketing interventions, connects social marketing with provisioning systems and commons scholarship, and provides guidance for designing territorialized strategies capable of sustainably improving access equity. Methods The study relies on a conceptual synthesis based on a Conceptual Framework Analysis (iterative and integrative), complemented by an operationalization example focused on access to local food in a European urban context, drawing on documentary, geographic, and qualitative data triangulation. Results The primary outcome is the formalization of the InTerACT framework and its diagnostic and lever–purpose alignment mechanisms. The worked example illustrates embedded barriers (routines, informational frictions, perceived costs; coordination and visibility deficits; logistical lock-ins and contractual incentives) and suggests corresponding action pathways. Recommendations For research, the article recommends translating the framework into testable propositions, developing robust indicators for justice dimensions, and using mixed and longitudinal designs. For practice, applying InTerACT can support the construction of local coalitions, the reconfiguration of supply and access rules, and the steering of interventions based on equity, legitimacy/agency, and sustainability. Limitations As a conceptual framework developed through an integrative Conceptual Framework Analysis, InTerACT has not yet been subjected to causal empirical testing; its relationships and proposed levers require further specification, operationalization, and validation through systematic reviews and longitudinal, mixed-methods empirical studies across diverse contexts.