Resumen

The article is intended to highlight the origins of regional geographic thinking in Colombia and to explain the dynamics involved in the challenges of regional planning in the twenty-first century, currently materialized in the Planning Administrative Regions (RAP). The research aims to contribute to the knowledge and interpretation of the challenges presented by applied associativity from the perspective of geographic science (human and cultural) and to investigate the ethnocultural origins of the regional forms of organization and policies that spatially influence the Colombian territory. This spirit remains in the process of concretization of the RAPs, which the authors attribute to Fals Borda in "La insurgencia de las provincias" (1988). These are discussed given the need to rescue the natural-cultural bases for the sustainability of the territory and social innovation. The process initiated by Fals Borda culminates with Law 1962 of 2019, which establishes the basis for the construction of the Territorial Entity Region (RET).