Call for papers "The staples of depopulation: the urban-rural divide, territorial inequality and unequal accessibility"

The staples of depopulation: the urban-rural divide, territorial inequality and unequal accessibility

Editors: Luis Camarero (UNED), Jesús Oliva (UPNA) and Vicent A. Querol (UJI)

Deadline for proposals: 28 February 2022

Issue publication date: April 2023

Languages: English, Spanish, Valencian

Globalisation and the structure of world economies increase interconnections between territories, widen employment divisions between regions and at the same time, intensify territorial inequalities. The development model based on the concentration and agglomeration of resources, labour, vitality and knowledge causes persistent differences between the places where opportunities converge and those located on the margins of these large nuclei. Both processes help to create the urban-rural divide. The hollowing out of populations and demographic imbalances –ageing populations, masculinisation, social decapitalisation– alter demographic and social reproduction of many rural areas and hamper the life projects of their inhabitants as well as preventing equal access to wellbeing and civic participation.

The urban-rural divide refers to the persistent inability of rural areas to achieve the same standards of living, services and opportunities as in urban contexts (Camarero and Oliva, 2019). It may be defined as the accumulative effect of various processes (demographic economic, etc.) and disparities (accessibilities, labour markets, etc.). These differences and conditioning factors have multiplicative effects and represent a major obstacle to the welfare and future of many rural areas, where deep-seated imbalances and overt inequalities accumulate.

The rural question, therefore, should be understood as a deficit not of development, but of political attention. In sum, depopulation —the decline of rural areas— is nothing other than the manifestation of a lack of territorial cohesion and citizen inequality. The rural areas are one of the frontiers of wellbeing.

Recerca invites researchers to submit papers on the processes of change and exclusion that affect rural areas and especially those that draw connections between the following lines of reflection: sociodemographic changes, lack of accessibility, inequalities and forms of mobility, increasing precarity of life, and the lack of citizenship in rural environments.

Link to author guidelines: http://www.e-revistes.uji.es/index.php/recerca/instrau