Background: Social occupational therapy developed in Brazil in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a practice approach to the social issues experienced by vulnerable populations.
Aim: The aim of this study was to analyse the theoretical-methodological framework which has supported social occupational therapy practices and interventions in Brazil.
Method: In a scoping review following PRISMA- ScR, the following databases were searched for publications reporting the practices and interventions of social occupational therapy: Scopus, Web of Science, Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences (LILACS) and The Cochrane Library.
Results: Twenty-six publications met the inclusion criteria. The interventions were aimed at socially vulnerable children and young people at risk of violations of their rights. The studies employed active/participatory pedagogical methodologies which make the participant groups' protagonism central to their learning and intervention process. These approaches are supported by social and human science epistemologies.
Conclusions: Social occupational therapy has inaugurated a paradigm shift by prioritising working with populations in situations of vulnerability arising from socioeconomic, cultural, political and identity issues. This perspective is anchored in theoretical approaches which are strongly linked to collective social actions which arose from the conditions of Brazil's period of military dictatorship.
Significance: At a time when there has been increasing emphasis on addressing marginal groups and widening health inequalities social occupational therapy practice in community development contexts around a focus on vulnerability has been of increasing interest in the wider knowledge sphere of the profession. This article presents a scoping review for anglophone readers.
Keywords: Scoping review; occupational therapy; social field.