Strengthening rural identity through design thinking and its contribution to the SDGS

Abstract

The transformation of rural contexts calls for innovative strategies combining endogenous and exogenous factors to achieve sustainable management of resources and sustainable growth. Furthermore, this integration must respond to the communities' cultural identity and ancestral knowledge, consider their perspectives, and project the role of the next generations. A sequential mixed study was conducted aimed at diagnosing the sociodemographic, conceptual, and practical elements necessary to implement a design thinking methodology with the objective of strengthening rural identity in Colombia. The results indicate that raising awareness among young people and encouraging their training as transformative leaders capable of energizing design thinking processes is necessary. In addition, principles are offered for the adequate development of said training and the design of a methodology. The findings allowed us to conclude that participatory and community-centered approaches could be the most suitable for strengthening identity and the subsequent rural transformation.