Abstract
This chapter debates the future of remote rural areas in Portugal, taking into account the current processes of reconfiguration based on the revalorisation of those areas mainly as ‘consumable’ places. Tourism and related activities are the most relevant ways through which rural territories are being consumed. These processes are, to a certain extent, the main driving forces of the transformations taking place in rural areas, not only in material terms but also in symbolic terms. The touristic promotion of the countryside is often based in ‘global’ images rather than in local features, apparently inducing a process of ‘McRuralisation’. Based on the content analysis of promotional materials presented in the website of the Schist Villages Network, Portugal, we intend to reveal the main features used to promote and sell this territory, and its global and/or local character, as well as to discuss the potential consequences in terms of rural reconfiguration paths.
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Notes
- 1.
Although it can be seen that there is much theoretical and methodological diversity regarding the analysis of changes occurring in rural areas in the Western world, there is a broad consensus as to the universality and direction of such alterations (e.g. Mormont 1994; Ramos-Real 1995; Jollivet 1997).
- 2.
Without wishing to deny the importance of the concept of the multifunctionality of rural areas and their effective and successful operationalisation, in some cases, we consider it worthwhile to question the reasons for the emergence of a multifunctional rural space from the mid-1980s onwards (ECC 1988), in a context in which there is a generalised view of the rural world as a place without autonomous productive functions and, at the same time, a notion of the revaluation of the cultural, environmental and social heritage of this same world (Nave 2003). The rural world’s set identity and monofunctionality appear to be giving way to a certain functional ‘schizophrenia’, though a good part of it does not possess the necessary instruments and abilities to respond.
- 3.
This metaphor arose most clearly in the context of a short research project, begun in 2008 and financed by the National Research Council (CNR), Italy. This project, which focused on the images of the countryside conveyed and sold by tourist promoters, revealed a homogeneity and massification of symbols (material and immaterial) in supply, demand and consumption, strongly suggesting a global representation of the countryside (Figueiredo and Raschi 2012).
- 4.
- 5.
Since this is an attribute of most Western societies, such imaginary and strategies may raise greater challenges and have increased impacts on Southern European societies due to the characteristics of their rural areas, particularly of those places which we earlier defined as remote or peripheral.
- 6.
In the previous section, we have already mentioned the ‘disappearance’ of the countryside as an object of study, assumed by many social scientists to have been diluted into the urban. However, Cloke (2006) states that the last decade has witnessed an ‘enthusiastic’ re-emergence of rural studies.
- 7.
Estado Novo was the designation of the dictatorship period in Portugal (1926–1974). The ideological exploitation mentioned, generically, consists of glorifying the countryside as an area in which the ‘noblest’ of man’s activities – agriculture – is developed.
- 8.
Emphasis added by the author. The author is also responsible for the translation of this and the following excerpts used in the text.
- 9.
The rivers Zêzere and Alva, crossing the territory, are, in fact, remarkable natural features of the area.
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Figueiredo, E. (2013). McRural, No Rural or What Rural? – Some Reflections on Rural Reconfiguration Processes Based on the Promotion of Schist Villages Network, Portugal. In: Silva, L., Figueiredo, E. (eds) Shaping Rural Areas in Europe. GeoJournal Library, vol 107. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6796-6_9
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