Regeneration Beyond The State: Community-Led Transformations Of Social Relationships, Livelihoods, And Environment Through Tourism In Virolín, Colombia.

Abstract

This thesis looks at the transformative potential and obstacles of regenerative community-based tourism (RCBT) in Virolín, a remote community in Colombia impacted by historical state neglect and armed conflict. Employing qualitative analysis, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation, the study investigates how regenerative tourism impacts livelihoods, community dynamics, and environmental sustainability. Findings suggest that Virolín's RCBT offers advantages beyond traditional economic benefits. It modifies social relationships, gives marginalized groups, especially women and youth, more authority, and encourages ecological conservation initiatives embedded in local knowledge and collective action. These changes are not linear, but negotiated over time through daily practices, memory, and evolving community aspirations. However, these processes occur in disputed contexts characterized by fragmented governance, inequality of power, and land disputes. External actors such as NGOs offer vital support, although they may impose aims that are not aligned or increase dependency, often creating tensions between organizational aims and community goals. Within the framework of political ecology and regenerative tourism theory, this research examines tourism as a relational and contested practice that is impacted by unequal power relations, social identity, and disputed allocation of resources. Rather than merely filling governance gaps, tourism initiatives in Virolín help forge emergent forms of local authority and socio-environmental care, while also surfacing tensions and exclusions. In Virolín, RCBT is a contextual and disputed process, influenced by historical exclusion, power imbalances, and everyday engagement rather than a standardized pathway to reconciliation. This research expands the debate on tourism in fragile settings by providing empirical insights into how regenerative tourism initiatives are shaped by, and expose, local power imbalances, disputed authority, and tensions between community-driven goals and externally driven agendas. Moreover, it provides a grounded analysis of how regenerative tourism develops on the ground, exploring everyday interactions, local involvement, and contested environmental values, sometimes improving communities’ relationships and informal governance systems, but additionally disclosing present inequalities, institutional weaknesses, and contradictions associated with externally supported development initiatives.