Theoretical aspects of the new Latin American ruralities

This text explores the meaning of the concept of new ruralities to determine its theoretical and methodological implications. This polysemic ambiguous concept has most often been used in reference to the changes the rural environment undergone in Latin America from the 1980s onwards, when the effects of globaliation and neo-liberal policies began to be felt more intensely. In its analytical sense, the concept of new ruralities reflects the significance of alternative phenomena to the traditional rural world, generally involving so-called disagrarianization. In its wider sense, new ruralities refer to proposals for the intervention of public policies in order to achieve sustainable rural development and the acknowledgment of the role of the social actors and their collective identities.