Rural World Research Articles

Desenvolvimento do turismo no espaço rural como estratégia de reconversão no Brejo paraibano

This article is directed at discussing the process of social reconversion of agricultural hands into small entrepreneurs in the Brejo of Paraíba and at identifying the relationship between this phenomenon and the development of tourism in the municipality of Areia. The question is posed due to the moment of inflection in the agricultural settlers circumstances coincident with the emergence of tourism as an economic activity stimulated by development policies in the Northeast of Brazil. Qualitative research carried out between 2015 and 2016 afforded the valuable ethnographic data included herein. Secondary data, obtained through documentary research and bibliographic review, complement the analysis. The discussion of the results contemplates the story of how the agricultural workers in the Chã de Jardim community have evolved from the second half of the twentieth century through to the present, within the broader context of the widespread and deep transformation of the rural world. The results and conclusions show that the reconversion of the agricultural workers depends upon a change in values with younger more educated workers embracing the discourse of entrepreneurship, and pragmatically pursuing their “dreams”. It was also found that the development of tourism is decisive for the ‘productive conversion’ of the rural territory itself, which ceases to be perceived only as agricultural and becomes a space for leisure and entertainment, a situation that consolidates its perception as complementary to urban territory

A Review of Hana Horáková, Andrea Boscoboinik, Robin Smith (eds.), Utopia and Neoliberalism: Ethnographies of Rural Spaces. Berlin: Lit-Verlag, 2018, 256 pр.

The reviewed collection of articles constitutes an intriguing attempt to understand the modern processes taking place in rural areas in terms of their relationship with utopian ideas and positions of neoliberalism. Using field materials from Central and Eastern Europe and China, researchers demonstrate a wide range of scenarios and practices related to imagining the rural world and rural lifestyles emerging in the context of globalization, industrialization, information technology development, and neoliberal politics. The similarity of the authors' methodological approaches and the general theoretical framework ensure the structural and substantive integrity of the collection, which allows the reader to engage in discussions about economic, social, cultural and other changes that are characteristic of most modern rural areas.

Teddy, The Little Refugee Mouse by Dorothy Burroughes, and: The Magic Herb by Dorothy Burroughes

Reviewed by: Teddy, The Little Refugee Mouse by Dorothy Burroughes, and: The Magic Herb by Dorothy Burroughes Jan Susina (bio) Teddy, The Little Refugee Mouse. By Dorothy Burroughes, edited by Jack Zipes. Little Mole and Honey Bear, 2021. The Magic Herb. By Dorothy Burroughes, edited by Jack Zipes. Little Mole and Honey Bear, 2021. The most recent reprints in Jack Zipes's Fabulous Excavated Tales series are two books written and illustrated by Dorothy Burroughes. Popular during the 1930s and 1940s, Burroughes is a British children's author who is rarely mentioned in the histories of children's literature but is still held in high regard as a print maker and poster artist. Trained at the Slade School of Fine Art, Burroughes's first major success as a commercial artist was designing posters in 1920 for the London Underground that encouraged visitors to the London Zoo in Regent's Park. Drawn in the style of Japanese woodcuts, her image of Langur monkeys became popular with the public. Her second zoo poster, known as "the monkey poster," became the most requested poster in the history of the London Underground and is reprinted in both volumes along with her striking print of "The Black Panther." In the 1930s and 1940s, Burroughes was considered one of the leading British animal artists, along with Harry Rountree and Cecil Aldin. Many of her twenty children's books, like her better-known posters and prints, focus on animals and animal rights. Burroughes established her reputation as an animal artist with her prints and posters often featuring animals that she sketched at the Regent's Park Zoo and was awarded a Zoological Society Fellowship for her animal artwork. Yet she expressed mixed feelings about zoos and restricting animals in cages. In addition to illustrating informational books on animals such as Queer Beasts at the Zoo (1927) and Queer Birds at the Zoo (1927), Burroughes also wrote children's stories featuring anthropomorphized creatures that address social issues and emphasize the need to treat animals with respect and kindness. While Burroughes uses watercolor illustrations interspersed with linocuts in her children's books, her stories are longer and more complicated than those by Beatrix Potter and are intended for older readers. Her chummy and social world of animals more closely resembles that of Kenneth Grahame in [End Page 445] The Wind in the Willows, without the humorous escapades of Mr. Toad that A.A. Milne admired. The Magic Herb shows a bit of Lewis Carroll influence. Three badgers go on a quest for the Magic Herb to aid their seriously ill baby brother. To obtain the mysterious plant, they must journey to the Magic Isle where the white plant is guarded by the Dodo and the Unicorn. Burroughes draws the Dodo so he resembles John Tenniel's illustration of the Dodo in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Dodo, who initially appears rather fierce, is just "a little embittered by being misunderstood" (19). He is moved by the unselfish nature of the badgers' quest. As the Unicorn explains to the badgers, he and the Dodo are tasked with the responsibility of preventing the life-restoring plant from falling into the wrong hands, such as "pompous scientists and people who-want-towrite-to-the-papers" about discovery of this rare species. The selfless nature of the badgers' quest is reminiscence of Gluck's journey in John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River. The badgers succeed on their impossible journey, liberate the Dodo and the Unicorn from their long-term duties as protectors of the Magic Herb, and restore their younger brother to health, all a result of their selflessness. Teddy, The Little Refugee Mouse is an updated version of Aesop's "Country Mouse and City Mouse." Teddy is an elegant mouse who wears a smart gray coat with clean white collars. He accompanies his human family when they vacate London for the country for the duration of the War. Burroughes uses animal figures to comfort younger readers who were moved from the cities to escape Nazi bombing during World War II. Teddy is befriended by the Brown Mouse family who introduce him to the rural world of cows, pigs...

Cooperative benchmarking at the heart of public policies

In Morocco, the emergence of the cooperative sector in a structured and organized form dates back to the 1980s, although the culture of solidarity, mutual aid and collective work constitute a component of Moroccan culture and traditions. Indeed, social economy organizations, particularly associations and cooperatives, have rapidly developed thanks to the efforts made by the State, especially in the rural world for the financing and support of development projects, the fight against illiteracy, precariousness and poverty, the promotion and integration of women into the economic circuit. Even today and since May 18, 2005, the date of the launch of the National Human Development Initiative (INDH) by His Majesty King Mohamed VI, the aim of this study is to compare the Moroccan Model of cooperative with the other’s counties models.

Gender Semantics of the Forest in the Prose of Traditionalist Writers of the 1960s–1970s

This article studies the specific behaviour of characters in the forest space within the framework of the gender aspect. The study demonstrates that in the works of traditionalist writers of the 1960s and 1970s, as one of the iconic loci of the rural world, traditionally preserving the semantics of the unknown, “sacred” space, the forest reveals a characteristic influence on the behavior of the characters. The article provides examples that suggest that the gender of characters plays a significant role in this regard. It is proved that the objects of the most active influence of the forest are mainly male characters, whose inner space undergoes significant changes as a result, exposing the unconscious, “natural” drive of the characters. Being in the forest space, representatives of the stronger sex somehow strive for a maximum fusion with the environment, which is realised either in harmonious coexistence with nature and preservation of their own identity or in a kind of “wildness” of the characters. In this case, both options are due to the distancing of the characters from society, which is manifested to a greater or lesser extent. It is also noted that the specific behaviour of men in the forest space acquires a symbolic meaning as a result of comparison with the peculiarities of perception of the forest by female characters. Once in the forest, the heroines of the studied works do not succumb to the influence of space, preserving their inner space. Also, without crossing the line of the unconscious, women simultaneously become carriers of the cultural principle in the wild natural locus. Thus, the analysis of traditionalist prose makes it possible to find several striking examples of individual perception of the forest space by representatives of each gender.

Natura 2000: The European Way Towards Sustainability

Since the entry into force of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) on 9 June 1994, the Natura 2000 Network has become the tool conceived by the Community authorities to lead the implementation of the environmental commitments on European territory, to which they were bound in application of their accession to international conventions. Natura 2000 pursues the conservation of biodiversity in Europe by harmonizing the conservation of natural heritage with the support and promotion of traditional human activities. The Habitats Directive formulated the principles, objectives, management measures and procedures to preserve, maintain or, where appropriate, restore biological diversity, which each State was subsequently responsible for transferring to the jurisdiction. The standard does not impose any specific method to be used in the designation of the sites, the type of management to be developed or the measures to be implemented, but it does establish control mechanisms over their application. The designation of a Natura 2000 site provides an invaluable opportunity to stimulate the sustainable rural development of the area and to promote plans and activities compatible with the conservation of habitats and protected species. Dialogue and concertation are the mechanisms to be put into practice when it comes to resolving conflicts arising from the design of management models that articulate the recovery of the environmental heritage. The model by which the Natura 2000 Network has been implemented so far in Spain, and specifically in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, has been based on technocratic-formal processes. The inclusion of the area in the Natura 2000 network tends to be perceived by the inhabitants of the rural world as a bureaucratized process, disconnected from local plans and collective projects. The considerable delay in the designation of areas protected by the Natura 2000 network has contributed to the delay in adopting appropriate measures to promote biodiversity and achieve the objective of halting biodiversity loss in Europe in the short term. Despite having redoubled efforts in favor of conservation, the processes of environmental degradation have been increasing.

ЄВГЕН ЧИКАЛЕНКО І ХАРКІВ : ІСТОРІЯ ВЗАЄМИН

The aim of the research is to find out the aspects of Yevhen Chykalenko’s stay in Kharkiv during his studies at Kharkiv University which have various interpretations in his Spohady (Memoirs) and scientific literature; to establish the specificity of Yevhen Chykalenko’s circle of influence made up of the closest to him at the university; to highlight Yevhen Chykalenko’s attitude to Kharkiv in order to determine the Ukrainian nationalist movement members’ attitude to everything related to the urban world. The Research Methodology. The article focuses on the analysis of Yevhen Chykalenko’s reception of such basic features of the urban environment as people; city space; the function of the city; the conditions of everyday life, which are based on the analysis of the archival materials, the documents of Kharkiv University, the full set of his Shchodennyk (Diary) of 1907 – 1929 and the correspondence of an outstanding entrepreneur and philanthropist Yevhen Chykalenko. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that the chronological framework of Yevhen Chykalenko’s stay in Kharkiv, the peculiarities of the social environment of the circle of his closest friends among the students and teachers as well as specificity and evolution of Ye. Chykalenko’s attitude to Kharkiv have been regarded in the research for the first time. The Conclusions. Ye. Chykalenko’s life in Kharkiv covered no more than two academic years, during which he studied at Physics and Mathematics Faculty and later at the Law Faculty of Kharkiv University. Taking into account the fact that he was just an audit student at university as well as the specificity of the educational process organization, he did not have the opportunity to “feel” the spirit of a big city. His childhood friends from Yelisavetgrad had the greatest impact on both his life in Kharkiv and the reception of the city. His closest social circle consisted of students from raznochintsy. Yevhen Chykalenko witnessed Kharkiv’s evolution from the educational center on the border of the Ukrainian lands and therefore functioning mainly as a transit city for many young Ukrainians, to the centre of the Bolshevik political repression known as The Red Terror. Ye. Chykalenko’s attitude to Kharkiv remained neutral rather than hostile. Nevertheless, it wasn’t friendly. The main reason for such reception of the city was the central government. Concerning urban space, Ye. Chykalenko was mainly interested in such locations as hotels and theatres. However, the houses where he lived were less significant for him. He didn’t like urban romance, urban lifestyle and he did not write anything about the social strata of the urban population, streets, and districts of the city, types of random passers-by. Ye. Chykalenko regards a big city as a necessary space for the implementation of the projects of the Ukrainian national and cultural revival. On the contrary, the romance of the rural world was just as inherent for Ye. Chykalenko as for the bearers of the traditional worldview – the Ukrainian peasants. Key words: Yevhen Chykalenko, Kharkiv, Kharkiv University.

«Сверхтекст» Е.И. Замятина о деве-воительнице. Статья первая

This article deals with Yevgeny Zamyatin’s “hypertext” about the female warrior, i.e. with the totality of her manifestations in the works of the writer and the semantic continuum that they form. This type of character is defined as a heroine with outstanding physical abilities (such as strength, horse-riding and shooting skills, etc. – and also great beauty), a strong, proud personality, persistence, ability to fight back, determination to gain the upper hand, to win at all costs – especially in the game of power and armed conflict with the male character that is in love with the heroine and/or is loved by her. The author identifies Zamyatin’s works in which the woman warrior appears, analyzes the plot functions and the characteristic motif complex associated with this image. The author demonstrates that the female warrior represents a very frequent type of heroine in Zamyatin’s works: the image appears at the beginning of his career as a writer, in the short story “Kryazhi” (1915), and accompanies him until the end, manifesting itself in the screenplays written in the 1930s. The author reveals that a specific variant of the plot featuring the female warrior is implemented in Zamyatin’s works: the heroine is shown as equal in strength with the male character, and the test of power happens, in particular in the form of a literal duel. Whatever its outcome is and whoever wins, the storyline usually finishes with the death of one or both characters – either during the combat or as its remote consequence. While the type of the plot is usually the same, the female character itself shows a wide variety: there are Valkyrie-like heroines (Ildegonda in the play Atilla), polenitsas from Russian bylina songs (such as Nastasya Mikulishna in the screenplay “Dobrynya” or Marya in “Kryazhi”), Mongolian women warriors (Bortè, Ulek), and even contemporary heroines of this type (Zinaida in the screenplay “The God of Dance”). Usually such characters are attributed in Zamyatin to the legendary epic past or rooted in “folk archaics”; they belong to the rural world, to the Russian village. The constant topoi and the evolution of the female warrior in Zamyatin’s artistic works are revealed; in particular, such motifs as love–hate, test of strength (in the form of a duel or a competition), mutual intendedness of two “strong ones” and their tragic non-encounter are considered. The author notes that the supervalue of the female warriors in Zamyatin’s works is love, while for some other writers of the Silver Age, for instance, for Marina Tsvetaeva or Lyubov Stolitsa, such values were female agency, independence, control over one’s life, freedom, or even spiritual salvation. The play Atilla and its heroine Ildegonda are analyzed particular detail; the sources of this image are revealed.

WATER-A HUMAN RIGHT OR THE 21ST CENTURY OIL

A year into what has been an excruciating entry into a decade that was replete with hope, we take a trip down the memory lane to the last. Ostensibly linked to the deficit in rainfall, several parts of Indiahad faced its worst water crisis in a while. Chennai had actually gained international media attention when day zero was declared, no lessons learnt from the horrendous times Cape Town went through just a year prior. In the rural world, Saurashtra remains perennially parched. NITI Aayog too reiterated the specter of doom with its CWMI* report, which revealed that nearly half the population and 40% of Indias agricultural produce are in a fickle zone.

Pastoral migrations and generational renewal in the Mediterranean

<p>Important changes that have reconfigured the rural world in recent decades include the abandonment of inner and remote territories, and the growth of the immigrant workforce. Pastoralism provides an intriguing perspective on these processes, as it embodies the contradictions of an agricultural practice increasingly appreciated but decreasingly practiced. This work questions the contribution immigrant shepherds are making to the generational renewal of pastoralism in the Euro-Mediterranean context. The results point that their relevance in terms of generational renewal are limited, and mostly context specific.</p>

Subjects of Agricultural Production in the Socio-Structural Processes of the Russian Village

The article deals with the subjects of agricultural production, agricultural organizations, agricultural Holdings, peasant farms, personal part-time farms and their participation in the sociostructural processes of the Russian village. Dynamics of changes in the agricultural labor market, based on data from several large-scale studies of Rosstat (2011–2018), covering all regions of Russia. Results of individual interviews of the rural population and surveys of their households, as well as the Results of the 2016 agricultural census. they show the specificity of the moment of the rural world, when institutional transformations caused by agrarian reforms and modernization of agriculture radically changed social, labor practices and everyday life of the villagers. For a quarter of a century, the socioeconomic situation and status of the majority of villagers has changed qualitatively. The decrease in the level of rural employment in agriculture and growth in non-agricultural sectors of the agriculture industry led to structural mobility (move), which had transformed the social structure of the village and the formation of the informal sector, with its own internal structure, constituting one-third of all employees. These processes have led to an increase in migration of the working-age population, which has led to a decrease in the quality of human capital and the prospects for its reproduction in rural areas.

Los hoteles de campo y el transporte de lana en la conformación del espacio rural del NO del Territorio Nacional de Santa Cruz (1880-1950)

El presente trabajo brinda un panorama acerca de los hoteles de campo y el transporte de la lana en la conformación del espacio rural del NO del Territorio Nacional de Santa Cruz (TNSC) entre los años 1880-1950. El análisis de la historia de los Hoteles “Riera”, “Las Horquetas”, “Olnie” y ”Bajo Caracoles” -antiguos boliches de la región- resulta revelador de un mundo rural dinámico, con una intensa vida social, en una región que hasta ahora había sido caracterizada por la historiografía como un espacio despoblado y marginal a los grandes centros de actividad económica del TNSC.

The Rural Digital Divide in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Europe—Recommendations from a Scoping Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the digital vulnerability of many citizens of the rural world. This article identifies and analyzes the proposals made by academic literature to overcome the digital divide in the European rural world for the five-year period 2016–2020. A scoping review has been carried out according to the PRISMA methodology in the two dimensions of the digital divide: access and connectivity, and use and exploitation. Online databases were used to identify scientific articles from which, after screening, 28 key documents were selected. The results update Salemink systematic review of articles published between 1991 and 2014 on digital and rural development in Western countries and it also intends to go beyond by extracting recommendations. A variety of political, social, educational, technical and economic issues has been exposed, with a common emphasis on the empowerment of rural populations. The findings provide actionable evidence and proposals to facilitate decision-making in current policy information to overcome rural digital divide. From them, seven recommendations that could have a wide and rapid impact to minimize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic linked to the rural digital divide are synthesized. Three lines of action in the medium term are also proposed: the evaluation of national and regional public policies; the consideration of digital inclusion as a potential instrument to reduce rural depopulation; and the training in advanced digital skills to improve the social communication processes, considered key to promote empowerment and entrepreneurship.

The Culture Of The Informal City. Innovation From Within

In Latin America, the massive migration flows from the countryside to the cities, and the uncontrolled expansion of these last ones, have changed the rural-urban dichotomy. The dominant hypothesis is the “penetration -physical and cultural- of the urban world into the rural world” (Guidicini, 1998). Nevertheless, many of the characteristics of rural construction are maintained in the cities, but with less concern for the quality of the environment and more attention to economic activities. This is evident in “informal” settlements, where one of the essential features is still self-build. This paper aims to contribute to the debate on eco-compatible requalification of “informal” housing by highlighting the collective force and the creative and participatory potential that “informal” architecture and its “popular” culture offer if combined with the scientific expertise of professional architects. In order to achieve this purpose, it is proposed to integrate two methodologies: Participatory-Action Research (PAR) and Human-Centred Design (HCD).

The assessment of rural development: Identification of an applicable set of indicators through a Delphi approach

In spite of the decreasing differences between rural and urban areas (e.g. in their economic structures) there are still several limitations that the rural world has to deal with. In a constantly changing world, rural development policies are a crucial issue to respond to current and potential future challenges of rural areas. They must therefore be flexible to reinforce or discard objectives as new challenges arise, enabling the necessary adaptations in the territories. All this justifies the call for a set of indicators that allow an accurate evaluation of these policies and programmes. This paper presents a set of demographic, economic, environmental and social welfare indicators that must be taken into account to assess rural development and related policies. Using the qualitative Delphi methodology, a group of experts analysed 88 proposed indicators, after which a set of 25 was selected based on their importance and on the consensus of the panel. The panel also estimated the weight of each of the four dimensions considered (population, social welfare, economy and environment) within an index to measure rural development. It has therefore been found that, in addition to the economy, social welfare is one of the areas that contributes most to the development of rural areas, thus contradicting “traditional” indices based solely on economic and demographic indicators. All this points to the need to evolve towards an index based on the results of this paper. • Rural areas still face problems that need diverse, adapted and adaptable RD policies. • RD policies must be measurable to determine whether objectives are being achieved. • Delphi method was used to design a set of indicators representing the different RD dimensions. • Indicators were selected by a panel of experts with diverse roles on RD and based on consensus.

The use of rural areas in Portugal: Historical perspective and the new trends

The Portuguese landscape and its rural areas are the result of thousands of years of human presence, particularly since the late nineteenth century, when protectionist public policies were put in place to promote food self-sufficiency. During the Estado Novo regime, four main agricultural policies were enforced: wheat campaigns, internal colonization, agricultural hydraulic systems and reforestation. Nevertheless, there was a massive rural exodus, starting mainly in the 1960s, which resulted in the depopulation of 80 per cent of the territory. Nowadays, less than 20 per cent of the Portuguese population inhabits interior regions. This demographic change presents huge socio-economic challenges. Recently there have been new trends, based on land concentration and super intensive monoculture, which are incompatible with central and local governments’ policies and strategies to reverse depopulation. The sustainability of Portugal’s rural world, its landscape and the quality of life of its population are at risk. Four items were identified in this article: eucalyptus and pine forests, olive plantations, greenhouses and mining.

Aventuras y desventuras pedagógicas de un ilustrado local: El licenciado Tomás Virto de Vera y la reforma de las escuelas de Corella (1797-1803)

Sabemos que los ilustrados españoles querían mejorar la instrucción de todos los ciudadanos, pero no es fácil determinar si lograron reformar las escuelas primarias, porque las fuentes locales son escasas y proporcionan pocos datos. Sin embargo, diversos procesos judiciales permiten determinar con precisión qué sucedió a finales del siglo XVIII en Corella, una pequeña ciudad del Reino de Navarra. Fue entonces cuando Tomás Virto de Vera, un miembro de la oligarquía local, pretendió implantar la escolaridad obligatoria. Todo indica que en gran medida fracasó en su empeño y él mismo explicó el motivo: las familias campesinas no consideraban útil que sus hijos aprendieran a leer y escribir. Al mismo tiempo se modernizaron tanto los métodos de enseñanza como el aula escolar, siguiendo directrices típicamente ilustradas. En este terreno, la mejora fue tan evidente que el propio impulsor de los cambios consideró a posteriori que esas medidas eran mucho más apropiadas y efectivas. Al analizar los hechos se comprueba qué fuerzas frenaron la alfabetización en el mundo rural durante siglos.

Cornélio Pires and the caipira world reread and staged by Soffredini

This article recaptures the main aspects of the caipira culture in Cornélio Pires’ production and Carlos Alberto Soffredini’s theater – two authors in different times. In order to do this, it analyses the importance of the figure of Cornélio Pires in the diffusion about the rural world at the turn of the century, as well as some of his creations in the field of folk music and literature. Pires is one of the authors who references Soffredini’s work, revisiting his trajectory in the show A estrambótica aventura da música caipira, in 1990 – analyzed here in order to comment on the representation of caipira and folk culture produced in this play, the re-interpretation of Pires' work and some impacts of the choices made in this production in the context of the end of the 20th century in Brazil.Keywords: Cornélio Pires; Carlos Alberto Soffredini; folk culture; Brazilian literature; rural culture.How to citeBALISTA, Lígia Rodrigues. Cornélio Pires e o mundo caipira relido e encenado por Soffredini. Estudos Sociedade e Agricultura, Rio de Janeiro, v. 28, n. 3, p. 594-623, out. 2020. DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.36920/esa-v28n3-5.Received on August 2, 2020. Accepted on September 3, 2020.

Introduction to the thematic section: Literature and Rural World

Introduction to the thematic section: Literature and Rural World.Keywords: thematic section; literature; rural world; social sciences.How to citeSANTOS, Raimundo; SEGATTO, José Antonio. Introdução à seção temática: Literatura e Mundo Rural. Estudos Sociedade e Agricultura, Rio de Janeiro, v. 28, n. 3, p. 502-507, out. 2020. DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.36920/esa-v28n3-1.Received on September 8, 2020. Accepted on September 14, 2020.

Entorno, centros y comunidad de escuelas rurales del norte (Cantabria) y sur de España (Huelva)

Las escuelas rurales en España constituyen una realidad tan amplia y multiforme como invisible y compleja, sin embargo, no contamos con estudios comparativos entre regiones que muestren las diferentes realidades que existen bajo el término “escuela rural” en nuestro país. Por ello, en este artículo nos preguntamos por las semejanzas y diferencias que existen entre las escuelas rurales del norte y del sur de España. En este sentido, se desarrolla un estudio cuantitativo y cualitativo en el que se explora la situación de las escuelas rurales mediante un cuestionario y entrevistas en profundidad en tres tipos de centros (aulas unitarias, centros rurales agrupados y centros graduados ubicados en el medio rural) en dos provincias muy rurales tradicionalmente: Cantabria y Huelva. Se observan contrastes en el entorno y el profesorado y similitudes en los centros, el alumnado y las familias. Las escuelas están menos aisladas y cuentan con un profesorado más estable en el norte. El profesorado se muestra optimista y cuenta con un alumnado bien dispuesto. La participación de las familias es mejorable, pero tienen altas expectativas en la escuela. El reto es y sigue siendo asegurar un sistema educativo equitativo que ayude a mantener vivo el mundo rural.