Policies and practices for resilience in the face of rural depopulation, economic devitalisation, and fire exposure: A multiscale approach in Northern Portugal and Galicia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18778/1231-1952.33.2.01Keywords:
rural development, resilience, public policies, Northern Portugal and GaliciaAbstract
In Northern Portugal and Galicia, European and national initiatives have become the key instruments shaping rural territories and their socio-spatial configurations. Nevertheless, these regions continue to exhibit regressive trends − including depopulation, economic marginalisation, and heightened vulnerability to wildfires − revealing uneven spatial outcomes of development interventions. Against this backdrop, several villages in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula have shown a significant revitalisation, as a result of substantial public funding, local agency, place-based innovation, and the mobilisation of endogenous resources or private enterprises direct investment. These examples underscore the spatial heterogeneity of rural trajectories and highlight how localised dynamics of resilience and adaptation can challenge broader narratives of rural decline.
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