NEORURALISM AS CONFIGURATIVE PRACTICE OF ALTERNATIVE SOCIAL DYNAMICS: A CASE STUDY

Assuming as starting point that the rural as social representation refers to a variety of imaginings and meanings created and used by the various social actors to make sense of the experiences they assumed as rural, this article aims to analyze how representations of a rural lifestyle built and operated by a particular social group, neo-rural or new rural residents, take part transformatively on the local social dynamics of the reception sites. This time, the focal group corresponds to neorural residents settled in a rural area of the municipality of Manizales (Caldas, Colombia). Accepting the premise that neoruralism expresses a change in the relationship between the individual and his biophysical-social environment, the presentation and discussion of results revolves around three main analytical axes: a) individual-natural environment interactions; b) individual-social framework interactions; and c) individual-space interactions, emphasizing its effects on the collective environment, beyond the purely individual level. The article finishes with some considerations about this type of studies in local, national and Latin American contexts.