Life trajectories and territorial change: the social innovation of Proyecto Utopía in rural Colombia
Journal title SOCIOLOGIA URBANA E RURALE
Author/s Marco Alberio, Adriana Otálora-Buitrago, Jaime Alberto Rendón-Acevedo
Online First 3/26/2026 Issue 2026/Online First
Language English Pages 21 P. 1-21 File size 305 KB
DOI 10.3280/SUR2026-20951
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This article analyzes Proyecto Utopia which has been set against Colombia’s protracted conflict and rural marginalization, as a territorially embedded social innnovation that couples tuition-free agricultural engineering, housing, psychosocial support, and “learning-by-doing” with a philanthropy-based funding model. Drawing on mixed methods (survey of 251 graduates; 30 interviews; 20 focus groups; ethnography), it shows enhanced employment (78% formal jobs), entrepreneurship (47%), associativity (74%), leadership, and agroecological practices among alumni who return to transform their territories. Conceptually, it traces empowerment across micro-meso-macro levels, arguing that durable rural peace requires hybrid alliances beyond state action.
Keywords: social innovation, life trajectories, territorial development, peacebuilding, youth empowerment, post-conflict Colombia
Marco Alberio, Adriana Otálora-Buitrago, Jaime Alberto Rendón-Acevedo, Life trajectories and territorial change: the social innovation of Proyecto Utopía in rural Colombia in "SOCIOLOGIA URBANA E RURALE" Online First/2026, pp 1-21, DOI: 10.3280/SUR2026-20951