El medio rural es uno de los elementos fundamentales que vertebran social y económicamente el territorio europeo. La importancia de estas áreas rurales reside no sólo en su dimensión cuantitativa en términos de superficie, población y economía (representan el 91% de la superficie, albergan al 59% de la población, generan el 48% del VAB y proporcionan el 56% del empleo), sino que también lo son por el poderoso vínculo que representan con la cultura e identidad de sus pueblos, su protagonismo en el desarrollo de determinados sectores conectados con la agricultura y ganadería, y su labor esencial en la gestión del patrimonio natural y cultural. En la actualidad, la Unión Europea afronta un desafío crucial para la cohesión y el desarrollo de las áreas rurales. Pero pese a los esfuerzos de las políticas públicas para alcanzar la cohesión social y económica y la sostenibilidad ambiental de los territorios europeos, la realidad rural europea presenta muchos e importantes desequilibrios territoriales a diversas escalas y de muy distinto tipo. El medio rural andaluz afronta situaciones todavía más complejas y particulares. Andalucía es una región caracterizada por la gran extensión geográfica y diversidad económica de sus territorios, la elevada variedad de sus ecosistemas, su buen equilibrio demográfico rural-urbano, el importante peso específico del sector agroalimentario, y por haber protagonizado un intenso proceso de desarrollo rural en 52 de sus comarcas.

El objetivo general de este proyecto es identificar los factores que podrían impulsar dinámicas territoriales resilientes en cada uno de los diferentes tipos de áreas rurales andaluzas, esto es, que otorguen la capacidad de idear y desplegar nuevos recursos que permitan anticiparse, prepararse, responder, recuperarse y adaptarse favorablemente a la dinámica de transformación impulsada por un entorno cambiante. La finalidad última es proporcionar información de utilidad para el diseño de políticas públicas y estrategias territoriales que permitan una mejor respuesta de los territorios rurales frente a los impactos de la crisis, alcanzando así mayores niveles de crecimiento económico y de cohesión social y territorial.

ABSTRACT

In the field of scientific disciplines, such as economics and political science, the most recent literature does not hesitate to include the economic and financial crisis of 2007–2008 as one of the main and most important events in the twenty-first century to date. Today most European economies are still recovering from the consequences of the crisis, which was especially severe in terms of GDP and the labor market.

However, despite the widespread impact of the crisis in Europe, intensity and recovery rates have been very different. Research on the different socio-spatial trajectories surrounding the crisis has identified a complex web of reactions and has revealed its disparate territorial effects. This situation highlights one of the most important consequences of the crisis: the increase in inequalities between European territories.

The exceptional severity of the economic crisis and the spatial heterogeneity of its impact have led to growing interest in recent years in the concept of resilience. The wide–range of studies on regional and territorial resilience differs according to the object of study, the temporal and spatial scale on which the analysis is based, and the type of adverse event studied (sudden shock, long–term trend ‘slow–burn’, etc.).

For rural areas, the concept of resilience has been applied to the analysis of complex socio–ecological systems from the perspective of sustainable development, the analysis of community resilience, farming resilience, and the agri–food system and food security. However, this concept has not yet been widely used in a rural setting to try to understand the effects of the economic crisis from a territorial perspective.

Although existing studies on territorial resilience contemplate a diversity of contexts, they often fail to incorporate this factor sufficiently in empirical analyses, which, on many occasions, has led to very different types of territory being regarded as a homogeneous ‘whole’. The analysis of territorial resilience and its explanatory factors should therefore be performed between types of territories that are more or less homogeneous in terms of their circumstances and resources.

In this context, the objective of this study is to analyse territorial resilience in rural Andalusia (one of the most affected regions in Europe) after the impact of the recent economic crisis and identifies the factors associated with the highest recovery rates in different contexts and territories. To this end, we developed a methodology which incorporates the heterogeneity and diversity of rural territories. The results reveal how different aspects of economic, social, human, and natural capital promote resilient territorial dynamics in rural Andalusia. These results provide useful information for political decision–makers in the design of public policies, especially at a time like the present when the EU is immersed in the debate on the reform of rural development policies for the next programming period beyond 2020.