Diversity, Disparity and Territorial Resilience in the Context of the Economic Crisis: An Analysis of Rural Areas in Southern Spain

Abstract

This paper analyses territorial resilience in rural Andalusia, Spain, 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 that incorporates the heterogeneity and diversity of rural territories and uses composite indices calculated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in order to measure levels of resilience and identify the factors that impact recovery in rural counties. 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 debate on the reform of rural development policies for the next programming period beyond 2020.

Cooperative Societies and Sustainability: A Spatial Analysis of Andalusia as a Tool for Implementing Territorial Development Policies, Strategies and Initiatives

“…These areas offer comparative advantages for cooperative societies and should be included in any development policies that are implemented in rural parts of Andalusia. According to Sánchez-Zamora and Gallardo-Cobos [52], these policies should take into account the specific characteristics of each rural area. They also show that economic, social, human and natural capital help to generate resilient territorial processes in rural Andalusia.…”

“…Filippi, Triboulet, Chantelot and Peres [51] demonstrate high global and local spatial autocorrelations in the geographic location of French agricultural cooperatives. In the Andalusian case, Sánchez-Zamora and Gallardo-Cobos [52] analyse territorial resilience in rural Andalusia in response to the 2008 crisis, exploring the factors shaping certain territorial dynamics and identifying significant diversity between rural areas.…”

The Illusion of Urbanization: Impact of Administrative Reform on Communities’ Resilience

“…Economic resilience of a rural community is strongly related to agricultural activities, employment at the local level, financial resources and the way they are mobilized. While Faggian et al (2018) and Giannakis and Bruggeman (2017) argue that the role of agriculture in shaping resilience capacities is inconclusive, the results of Giannakis and Bruggeman (2018, 2020) and Sánchez-Zamora and Gallardo-Cobos (2019) confirm the positive effect of agriculture on the ability of rural and intermediate regions to withstand and recover from the impact of the economic downturn. The same authors state that increasing support for the agriculture sector, by maintaining and increasing the number of employees, leads to higher productivity and economic performance of a region, which could further strengthen its ability to build economic resilience capacity.…”

“…However, only up to a point; after which a continuous increase in embeddedness no longer contributes to its resilience capacity. Furthermore, the level of territorial economic development, captured through GDP per capita (Petrakos and Psycharis 2016; Giannakis and Bruggeman 2020; Huang et al 2018), GDP per land capita (Huang et al 2018), income level (Fratesi and Perucca 2018; Sánchez-Zamora and Gallardo-Cobos 2019), agriculture income proportion in total income (Huang et al 2018) or non-farm income (Zhong et al 2012; Steiner and Atterton 2014; Huang et al 2018), has a positive effect on the resilience of both urban and rural regions. In compliance with the aforementioned studies, we explored the economic resilience capacity in terms of agricultural area per capita, number of employees per thousand inhabitants, local income per capita, and local budget surplus per capita.…”

Political commitment and transparency as a critical factor to achieve territorial cohesion and sustainable growth. European cross‐border projects and strategies

“…This can be illustrated by the Ukrainian conflict and the annexation of the Crimea Peninsula by Russia, promoting not only a redefinition of borders, but also the Euro‐Atlantic spatial order, marking the end of strategic partnerships of NATO with Turkey and the “reset” policies put forward by the ex‐ American President, Barack Obama, (Dale, ; Holmes, ; Martins, ; Schutt, ). This has also led to the EU economic and financial crisis (Buti & Carnot, ; Emontspool & Servais, ; Jozsef & Pal, ; Martins, ; Mikail, ; Nyblom, Isaksson, Sanctuary, Fransolet, & Stigson, ; Sánchez‐Zamora & Gallardo‐Cobos, ), the growing phenomenon of terrorism in European territory, not only on its spreading of fear and insecurity in populations, but also catalysing the resurgence of nationalist extremist groups, allied with the dangerous ascendance of the sense of belonging, preservation of culture and the notion of Nation (it should not be forgotten that in less than a century, similar movements, policies, and ideologies led to the World Wars). The recent disposition to estrangement between the UK and the EU (the Brexit ); or even the orthodox electoral results of economic strongholds, such as the United States of America, all seem to participate in the disintegration of the European Continent, and with it EU itself, long established before that as the CEE, but set in what was thought as solid as stone by the Maastricht treaty in 1992 (Treaty on European Union, ).…”