Health geography: (Re)visiting territories in search of professionals who know how to work with their feet on the ground

Abstract

Discussing collective health without examining issues that impact communities, without these communities using their critical capacity, and, at the same time, analyzing public policies related to a universal health system without questioning their contradictions, is to pretend that reality is not being distorted. This essay, of a qualitative approach, seeks to identify and outline concepts by allowing certain fields of knowledge to be traversed by other forms of expression. It questions bio-deterministic practices, addresses the comfort zone of certain professionals who identify and propose interconnections between self-contained knowledge reservoirs. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to reflect on the importance of intersectionality and collective intelligence for health promotion in a territorial context. It seeks to discuss how this approach can contribute to improving health promotion and care practices through a grounded science that is attentive to the multiple social determinants of health and disease. The topics presented here offer theoretical and conceptual approximations that allow for a critical perspective on how medicine is practiced, how technology has affected various processes, and how these approaches need to be reconsidered.