Old Geographical Materialities. Recover the Past and the Heritage in the Present of Pheripherical European Rural Spaces: A Research Proposal

Abstract

The past has had a minor consideration in geographic studies the transformation of rural areas, usually dominated by socioeconomic analysis. Incorporating the old and in many cases, the materialities of the past through a reconsideration of heritage to the future of rural space requires an adequate conceptualization and reconsideration of rural materialities and especially of popular housing. In this way, it is intended to decentralize the human and functionalist point of view to give a life of their own to rural cultural and natural materialities in the context of more-thanhuman-geographies. The renewed study of heritage and the historical past acquires a notable value in the present and future of rural areas through: (1) the interpretation of dissymmetrical realities where the old confronts new activities; (2) for adequate and realistic management of rural heritage and the processes of selective recovery of heritage in certain historical places.

Old, Lost, and Forgotten Rural Materialities: Old Local Irrigation Channels and Lost Local Walking Trails

“…However, they are also influenced by the selective action of local institutions in heritage management [30]. Consequently, there is a selective recovery of cultural elements of the countryside in the form of new material assemblages [22]. Lost materiality is related to isolation, disarticulation, and changes in the countryside.…”

“…Dynamic communities act on open and close spaces in a continuous and fluid (re)articulation of micro-spaces. There is an adaptive relative value of local place in each time of history [22].…”

Untitled

“…Current rural geography is at a crossroads of theoretical and methodological options that reflect the current complexity of the academic debate on human geography itself. (Re)Incorporating materiality back into the study of rural spaces is an option that can help revitalize geographic analysis (Paniagua 2021a(Paniagua , 2021b. Geographical studies on rural change have usually focused on a socio-cultural perspective with little attention to the role of old materialities.…”