Newcomers and rural crisis: beyond the demographic challenge. A case study in Andalusia (Spain)

Abstract

Newcomers are key agents in the fight against rural depopulation, but the rural crisis is not only a demographic fact; it is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, so we set out to analyse it from the perspective of the socioecosystem. In this article, we study the relationship between newcomers and rural crisis, focusing on the way in which new residents are integrated into the socio-ecosystem at the socio-economic, socio-identity, and socioenvironmental levels. To explore the issue empirically and in greater depth from this analytical perspective, we present an ethnographic case study in a village in the Sierra de Aracena mountains (Andalusia, Spain) that displays symptoms of rural crisis while presenting positive demographic evolution. This case study, as paradoxical as it is significant, allows us to reflect on the role of newcomers in the face of rural crisis: the limitations of their effects beyond demographics. From here, we can enhance, more generally, our understanding of the rural crisis and help to improve policies that aim to mitigate it.