Towards rural proofing (in Spain): (un)founded expectations?

Abstract

This paper takes as its starting point the high expectations that rural proofing has been arousing in recent years in the European Union. Therefore, the main objective is twofold. Firstly, to carry out an analysis of the state of the art and situation of the RP in general, and in Spain in particular; secondly, to examine the situation and perspectives that this mechanism may have in Spain, considering the institutional environment, the organisational culture, the division of competencies, the (not excessively high) tradition of intersectoral cooperation at the different levels of government, etc. Through various specific objectives, a decalogue of the key aspects of rural proofing is drawn up, as a mirror against which to contrast the processes of practical implementation, and various aspects of the Spanish case are analysed. The conclusions point to the fact that, from our point of view, the rural proofing is the confirmation of the failure of a central aspect of the traditional place-based approach, the integrated approach. On the other hand, we examine the different limitations of the implementation of rural proofing in Spain. These suggest that we should be cautious with the probably excessive, and perhaps unfounded, expectations that have been generated in Spanish rural areas about the real possibilities of rural proofing.