Revista da Casa da Geografia de Sobral (RCGS)

Discussions about the dialectical relationship between society and nature: Theoretical implications in classical to postmodern perspectives

Iván Andrés Barrios García — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300

Este artículo examina la evolución epistemológica de la relación dialéctica entre sociedad y naturaleza en el pensamiento geográfico, desde las perspectivas clásicas hasta los enfoques posmodernos. Mediante una revisión bibliográfica exploratoria de naturaleza cualitativa, se analizaron textos indexados en SciELO, Scopus, Redalyc y Web of Science, complementados con trabajos académicos del aula de internacionalización "Ciudades Latinoamericanas: múltiples Realidades Socio Espaciales" (UVA-Universidad de Tucumán). La selección documental aplicó coeficientes de confiabilidad Kuder-Richardson (≥0,61) sobre criterios de desarrollo conceptual, relevancia teórica y correspondencia geográfica. Los resultados evidencian que la geografía clásica y moderna han conceptualizado esta relación bajo estructuras dicotómicas, donde naturaleza y sociedad operan como polos excluyentes: ya sea el determinismo físico (Ratzel, Humbolt) o el posibilismo humano (Ritter, La Blanche). La geografía crítica introduce matices híbridos (Santos, Harvey), aunque mantiene la tensión entre sistemas de objetos y acciones. Las perspectivas posmodernas, particularmente desde Latour y Creswell, proponen superar esta dualidad mediante la noción de actantes y cuasi-objetos, reconociendo agencia en elementos no humanos (animales, objetos, ideas) y concibiendo redes complejas donde lo social y natural son indisociables. Se concluye que la transición hacia enfoques integrados resulta necesaria para abordar desafíos contemporáneos como el cambio climático, la globalización y las transformaciones tecnológicas, requiriendo una epistemología unificada que trascienda las dicotomías tradicionales.

Intermediate cities in Colombia: theoretical debates, functionality, and territorial planning in the national urban system

Luz Adriana Castiblanco Martínez — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300

This article examines the role of intermediate cities in Colombia as strategic nodes within the national urban system, from theoretical, functional, and institutional perspectives. Based on a comparative review of Latin American and European authors - including Carrión, Llop, Corrêa, Sposito, Moura, Haesbaert and Raffestin, it argues that urban intermediation is a structural dimension of territorial development rather than a residual category between metropolitan and rural areas. In the Colombian context, intermediate cities perform economic, administrative and symbolic articulation functions but lack formal recognition in planning policies. The study identifies tensions between the functional relevance of these cities and their limited institutional visibility, proposing a national policy that acknowledges their role in decentralization, sustainability and territorial cohesion. It concludes that strengthening intermediate cities requires advancing toward a multilevel governance and multiscalar planning model that integrates Colombia’s natural, built and institutional systems.

Montería, an intermediate city: a step forward in territorial consolidation in the colombian continental caribbean (2021-2030)

Jorge Eliécer Cifuentes Sánchez — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300

The city of Montería has established itself as a stronghold in the Colombian Caribbean. Urban development, population growth, and projections for services and commerce point toward the goals set within the framework of its territorial consolidation. According to the Territorial Planning Plan (POT) (2021-2032), the city of Montería has adopted a land use model based on the quality of public spaces in its functional and service structure. Likewise, the urban component projects a strategic socioeconomic structure, based on urban centers, infrastructure, and large green spaces, which allow for the proper functioning of a dignified space for citizens. Montería's territorial consolidation as an intermediate city has been established within the functional framework it has had in the geohistorical process. Structural problems, related to population growth and its regional relationships in the dynamics of services and commerce, have projected Montería as a thriving city open to the world within the framework of a global economy.

Urban expansion and land conflicts: territorial transformations and dynamics in the peri-urban area of Tunja, Colombia

Jeison Andrés Hincapié Rodríguez — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300

The peri-urban phenomenon represents one of the most dynamic expressions of territorial transformation for mediate cities in Latin America, as it is where tensions arise between what has been termed urban and rural, resulting from real estate pressure, land scarcity, and the reconfiguration of local economies. This document presents an analysis of peri-urban behavior in the mediate city of Tunja, Colombia, understood as a territory in transformation that reveals the contradictions of urban growth. The analysis adopts a mixed-methods approach that combines documentary analysis, field observation, interviews with local stakeholders, and spatial analysis to understand the socio-spatial dynamics of the peri-urban area within the city. The results demonstrate that the peri-urban area is the result of historical processes of informal urbanization in the latin american cities, outdated planning policies, and pressure from real estate developers, displaced populations, and farmers who are forced to transform their activities. It is thus concluded that the peri-urban area is not a residual space, but rather a place where spatial rationalities converge and where the urban-rural relationship is redefined with the aim of rethinking territorial planning.

EXPANSIÓN URBANA, FRAGMENTACIÓN TERRITORIAL Y DESIGUALDADES SOCIOESPACIALES EN EL GRAN SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMÁN

Sandra Liliana Mansilla — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300

El presente artículo analiza los procesos de territorialización, desterritorialización y reterritorialización asociados a la expansión urbana del Gran San Miguel de Tucumán, en Argentina. La investigación combina revisión teórica y análisis empírico para comprender cómo el crecimiento urbano reciente produce nuevas formas de fragmentación socioespacial, redefinición de centralidades y reconfiguraciones en el uso del suelo. Se destacan las dinámicas vinculadas a la metropolización, la incorporación de áreas periurbanas y las desigualdades en la distribución de infraestructuras y servicios urbanos. Los resultados evidencian que la expansión del tejido urbano implica simultáneamente prácticas de apropiación, exclusión y reorganización territorial, contribuyendo a una urbanización marcada por contrastes y múltiples racionalidades en el uso del espacio.

Peripheries in Dialogue: Rural Spaces in Urban Contexts A Case Study of Guadalajara, Mexico and Sobral, Brazil

Javier Ezaú Pérez Rodríguez, Virginia Célia Cavalcante de Holanda — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300

The objective of this work is to identify transforming spaces that have adapted their productive activities to the dynamics of urban sprawl through the sale of rural products. This is analyzed through two examples related to the urban expansion process in two Latin American cities: Guadalajara, Mexico, and Sobral, Brazil. The areas affected by the unfolding of their urban footprints modified their relationship with the new surrounding exterior, disrupting old productive spaces rich in tradition and history. Simultaneously, new territories were created within these transforming spaces, where local actors have generated survival strategies based on the urban imprint. This urban growth led to the reconfiguration of economic activities in peripheral areas with significant rural activity. In the cases of Guadalajara and Sobral, the process of urban expansion toward neighboring municipalities resulted in alternative ways of coping with the precarization of their living spaces. The market size represented by the cities of Guadalajara and Sobral has prompted the emergence of cooperative projects, economic units, and even agri-food systems, such as organic producers in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga and Sobral, dairy production in Tonalá, and cactus (nopal) producers in Zapopan. These cases are analyzed under the perspective of the "new rurality," as these traditional activities maintain relationships within and outside the rural space with other complementar activities that have allowed them to survive within the urban environment of these two cities.

Nature-Based Solutions in the Context of "Urbanalization": An Analysis of Biofilter Gardens in the City of Sobral - CE

Luciana de Andrade Catunda, Luiz Antônio Araújo Gonçalves — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300

This article stems from reflections developed throughout the Internationalization I course of the Graduate Program in Geography at the State University Vale do Acaraú (UVA). The study sought to analyze how Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) implemented in the urban space of Sobral/CE are examined through the theoretical lens of Urbanalización by Francesc Muñoz and Geosystems Theory. NbS may thus be diverted from their structural purpose, becoming instruments for reproducing and worsening socio-environmental problems in cities. The study demonstrated that the prevalence of urban marketing and city branding over Nature-Based Solutions reduces green and blue infrastructure interventions in favor of aesthetic urbanism, neglecting the geosystemic complexity of the urban site. As the empirical object, we analyzed the implementation of biofiltering gardens in the medium-sized city of Sobral-CE, based on the external audit report of the Sobral Socio-Environmental Development Program. Evidence of urbanalización was identified in the technical failures of the system, in the instrumentalization of nature, in green gentrification, and in low social participation. The study concluded that the effectiveness of biofiltering gardens in Sobral-CE as an urban sustainability instrument requires overcoming the city marketing vision and aesthetic urbanism in favor of understanding geosystemic complexity and fostering social engagement and oversight.

CONTEXTO HISTÓRICO RELACIONAL DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN SOCIAL EN LA COMUNA 13 DE MEDELLÍN

Andrés Felipe Roso Zapata — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300

This document presents some of the results of a doctoral thesis that seeks to redefine the understanding of social relations, conceiving them as an a priori element rather than an attribute derived from the actors. This inversion proposes an ontology without substance, in which social relations are a precondition shaped by space-time and discourse. Approaching human actions from a practical perspective reveals a deeper meaning than individual consciousness, a meaning that needs to be explored in the current urban context where social bonds are fragile. The theoretical lens that enables the analysis of social relations from their symbolic, organizational, and pragmatic dimensions is the relational approach, from which the emergent effects of these bonds and their relationship to the context are revealed. The case study is Comuna 13 in Medellín, a territory marked by violence and resistance. There, the analysis examines how social organization has emerged and evolved amidst armed conflict, art as a form of re-existence, and the effects of public policy on social urbanism.

Urban transformations, territorial disputes and citizen action: A reading from Milton Santos of the case of the Mitre Station (San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina)

Virginia Soria Mansilla — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300

This article analyzes the process of academic and civic mobilization that developed around the railway land of the Mitre Station in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, within the framework of national policies for the alienation of public lands. Based on the work promoted by an ad hoc commission of the Institute of Urban Planning and Development (IPDU-FAU-UNT), which included the drafting of an institutional declaration and the citizen action “REvuelta a la Estación Mitre: Caminata urbana de lo común” (Revolt at Mitre Station: Urban Walk of the Commons), it examines how the practices of knowledge production, collective articulation, and occupation of the territory constitute forms of resistance against the processes of urban commodification.The analysis is framed within the work of Milton Santos, considering his reflections on globalization, land use, and urban rationalities, and is complemented by contributions from the Right to the City and the idea of the city as a common good. The work shows how the defense of the property is part of a broader dispute over the social use of the territory, the democratization of urban decisions, and the strengthening of collective practices that restore use values in the face of market logic.

Food Security and Sovereignty in Tucumán (2010–2020): Contributions of the Prohuerta Program at the Family-Local Scale

Juan Antonio Caro — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300

This article analyzed the contribution of the ProHuerta Program (PPH) to food security and sovereignty in Tucumán (2010–2020) through a qualitative and territorial approach. Based on a case study that included 33 interviews with family and community gardeners, promoters, technicians, and key informants, three dimensions were examined: (i) food security and sovereignty at the family–local scale, (ii) agroecological production practices, and (iii) improvement proposals. The findings showed sustained increases in food availability, quality, and diversity, with immediate consumption and lower exposure to residues; they also revealed strengthened household autonomy and social capital (seed exchange, fairs, and networks). The PPH was configured as a socio-productive public policy that integrated assistance, agroecological education, and community organization. Among the constraints, budget restrictions since 2015, limited input provision, and reduced technical assistance stood out. Low-cost, high-impact actions were proposed: community seed banks, modular training itineraries, light monitoring, and interinstitutional partnerships. It was concluded that the PPH constituted a paradigmatic experience of agro-food policy with a territorial perspective, capable of articulating food security, sovereignty, and agroecology in contexts of structural inequality.

THE VENEZUELAN MIGRATION PHENOMENON: CONTEXTS AND UNDERLYING MOTIVATIONS; A CASE STUDY OF SOBRAL, BRAZIL

Luz Maritza Mantilla Chanagá, Aldiva Sales Diniz — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300

Contemporary migrations are driven by multiple factors, especially political and religious motivations, internal conflicts, and wars. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM, 2022), the global migrant population grew from 84 million in 1970 to 281 million in 2020. In Brazil, the state of Roraima has become the main gateway for Venezuelan migrants. Data from the Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V) indicate that, by 2024, approximately 568,058 Venezuelans had entered the country. This study analyzes the causes of Venezuelan family migration and the routes used to reach Brazil through a qualitative and exploratory approach, including literature review, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and content analysis. Most migrants originate from Carabobo, Monagas, and Anzoátegui, traveling between 600 and 1,200 km to reach Roraima. The main drivers of migration are socio-economic, including economic crisis, high living costs, unemployment, precarious public services, and food and health insecurity. Many migrants temporarily settle in cities such as Pacaraima, Boa Vista, Belém, Teresina, Brasília, and Fortaleza, where they access shelters and informal work. The findings suggest that Venezuelan migration to Brazil results from the violation of fundamental rights, characterizing a forced migration process shaped by structural vulnerability.

EDITORIAL

Virgínia Célia Cavalcante de Holanda, Luiz Antonio Araújo Gonçalves — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300