People organised into social movements have won tremendous victories for health. Social movements are one of the most effective forms of pressure on health and care, drivers of health systems change and sources of transformative ideas. Yet, how social movements aid innovation is an unexplored subtheme within social movement and innovation research. This exploratory study utilised constructivist grounded theory to examine how social movements aid innovation development and diffusion in a health context. It involved interviewing a sampling of people working on public health issues across England and resulted in empirical findings representing over 40 health social movements. These findings were triangulated against meeting observations and supplementary documents related to social movement activity.

The study starts by investigating how people make sense of social movements as a concept, which led to discovering the social movement experience (SMExp) and reinforcing the need for a people’s perspective in social movement research. The SMExp offers a new analytical tool for researchers, a sensemaking tool for social movement actors and a strategy tool for policymakers in devising social movement engagement and support strategies. Investigating the SMExp in light of theories of experience excavates new insights from the study data and surfaces new research questions.

Through the application of an innovation practitioner lens to social movement empirical data, the study identifies twelve ways that social movements aid innovation development and diffusion. Broadly, it also offers insight on studying innovation in relation to social movements, new conceptual directions, opportunities for social movement innovation practice and a future research agenda at the nascent intersection of social movements and innovation.

Finally, the study also contributes to health as an underrepresented issue within social movement research and reveals that social movements can be a solution to social health issues.