Socio-Economic Shifts and New Dynamics in Rural Areas

Dynamics of the Rural World

The rural space today is increasingly heterogeneous and complex.

• First, it is receiving new uses different from the previously predominant agricultural ones.
• In addition, it experiences both tradition and modernity. Some regions, termed "deep rural areas," maintain traditional activities and suffer from underperformance and abandonment.
• Others have modernized, specializing in competitive, high-performance production oriented toward marketing.

These changes have led to discussions about a crisis in the rural world.

New Uses of Rural Areas

a) Causes Favoring New Rural Uses

• A New Positive Perception of Rural Life: Due to urban unrest (associated with pollution, unemployment, and insecurity), the rural environment is revalued as a synonym for higher quality, environmental health, tranquility, safety, and sociability.
• The Trend to Decentralize: Decentralizing residence, production methods, and services to achieve lower costs and a more balanced territorial organization.

b) Types of New Uses Implanted

The new uses implanted in rural areas include:

• Residential Use: Secondary housing (weekend or holiday) or primary residences in areas near large cities.
• Industrial Use: Transfer of factories seeking cheaper labor or utilizing local raw materials and resources.
• Tertiary Uses: Infrastructure for transport, urban supply, and large commercial surfaces.
• Cultural and Landscape Conservation Uses: Based on the consideration of rural areas as successful spaces with beautiful scenery, historical, and cultural importance, where the population fulfills an environmental role.

c) Positive and Negative Impacts

These new uses have both positive and negative impacts:

Positive Consequences:

• A more balanced distribution of population and economic activity, breaking the traditional contraposition between rural and urban areas.

Negative Consequences:

• Loss of the purely agrarian identity of the space.
• Environmental degradation.
• Competition for resources (e.g., land and water).
• Social conflicts arising from the arrival of people with different economic interests and values.
• Accentuation of territorial contrasts, especially in crisis areas that fail to revitalize their economy and continue to lose population.

The Crisis of the Rural World

The crisis of the rural world is characterized by several key indicators:

1. The decline of the population engaged in agricultural activities (e.g., 4.5% in 2007).
2. The relative decline in agriculture's contribution to GDP (around 3%; 2.9% in 2007). No obstante, absolute GDP figures grew as yields increased, and farming maintained an important role as a supplier of food and raw materials for various industries.
3. Reduced agricultural participation in foreign trade, despite an increase in the absolute value of exports and imports. The positive trade balance was interrupted between 1970 and 1995 due to imports of manufactured products, fodder, and livestock timber. Since then, the positive balance has been recovered.