Rethinking and Structuring Inclusive Access: The Contribution of the InTerACT Framework to Public Action and Social Marketing[Penser et structurer l'accès inclusif : apports du cadre InTerACT à l'action publique et au marketing social]

Contemporary transitions are confronting public action with mounting challenges in ensuring equitable access to essential resources and services. These transitions expose the limitations of public policies that remain largely centered on information provision, incentives, or individual responsibility, even though inequalities in access are deeply embedded in structural and institutional determinants. In this context, a central question concerns the forms of knowledge mobilized by public action and the kinds of collective intelligence required to govern complex, multi-actor, and territorially embedded systems. This article proposes repositioning social marketing as a form of systemic public action knowledge, oriented toward social justice and the transformation of access conditions. It adopts a critical perspective on individualistic approaches to social change and advances a conception of social marketing as a framework for the analysis, diagnosis, and design of territorial public policies in contexts of transition. The research question is as follows: how can social marketing be rethought and operationalized in order to address systemic access problems from a social justice perspective, while articulating the micro, meso, and macro levels of territorial public action? To answer this question, the article introduces the InTerACT framework (Territorial Inclusion and Transformative Community Action), conceived as a public action tool. InTerACT offers a mapping of access systems based on three interdependent levels: the micro level (individual capabilities, resources, and empowerment), the meso level (actor networks, coordination, trust, and local governance), and the macro level (institutions, infrastructures, rules, and public policy instruments). This systemic analysis is linked to three dimensions of justice—redistribution, recognition, and representation—which serve as guiding principles for public action in times of transition. Methodologically, the article is based on a conceptual synthesis derived from an iterative and integrative Conceptual Framework Analysis, complemented by an empirical illustration focusing on access to local food in a European urban context. This application draws on a triangulation of documentary, geographic, and qualitative data, and highlights systemic barriers such as institutional routines, informational frictions, coordination deficits, and logistical lock-ins. The main contribution of this work lies in the proposal of a unifying framework that renews the forms of knowledge available to public management in periods of transition. By linking social marketing, territorial governance, provisioning systems, and social justice, InTerACT provides conceptual and operational guidance for designing, steering, and evaluating public policies capable of durably improving equity of access, the legitimacy of public action, and the sustainability of transition trajectories.