The The territory and health: conceptual notes for the proposal of sustainable and healthy territories

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the analytical and operational potential of the concept of territory
to formulate proposals and promoting the creation of healthy and sustainable territories. The debate about
the territory concept is related to the globalization process and the networks of socioeconomic relations
that have been shaping new spaces, producing conflicts and raising local identities. Globalization and these
spaces have been aggravating social and health inequalities, promoting flows but also building barriers for
human relations. The relationship territory-network is a process of production of a new spatial form that
brings together several territories simultaneously and is associated with power, the micro and macropolitical
properties of social relations that manifest themselves from the territorialization of social actors. Ways of
conceiving territory arise from the body, expanding the scale and its understanding as a synonym of living
space, human and non-human, in a relational and integrate perspective. The concept of territory contributes
to the approach of healthy and sustainable territories as a basis for analysis, action, interaction, solidarity and cooperation among the individual’s body, society, living beings and the planet, which are the foundations for emancipatory practices and producers of autonomy and health.