AbstractNew migration and residential patterns and increased commuting are significantly changing Spanish rurality. Perhaps the most important change is that these processes are creating a changing world of new rural melting‐pots with a mixture of residents (such as international labour and retirement migrants, returning pensioners, ex‐urban groups and neo‐rural residents). These mobilities led to the demographic revitalisation of many areas, supporting traditional productive sectors as well as expanding rural activities. On the other hand, automobility, as a systematic resource to compress time and space, has become a key dimension of rural social sustainability today. In many rural habitats, commuting plays a determining role for retaining young people, women and skilled workers, providing more effective combinations of residence, labour strategies and sociality. However, these processes also open up a new range of vulnerabilities and social inequalities. By analysing census data and research carried out in different regions we explore the impact of mobilities on these rural areas, their interrelation with local fixities and the fragilities underlying these relations.
El acceso de las sociedades rurales a las oportunidades y recursos del bienestar centra las agendas políticas y de investigación. La persistente brecha rural-urbana incrementa los riesgos de exclusión y constituye un desafío que los habitantes rurales afrontan intensificando su movilidad para acceder a mercados laborales, recursos y servicios. El automóvil se ha convertido en un vector de las conexiones y transformaciones que sostienen la vida rural pero esta movilidad es también fuente de nuevas fracturas en la cohesión socioterritorial. El trabajo explora cómo se ha conformado el sistema de movilidad rural y analiza su impacto sobre estas sociedades. Los resultados sugieren integrar, desde una perspectiva sociológica más compleja, la cuestión de la movilidad en las políticas rurales que abordan el reto demográfico, el desarrollo regional y la cohesión territorial.
Abstract Social and territorial inequalities take on new dimensions in times of economic recession. The impact of the crisis on policies aimed at achieving equity in access to opportunities and the provision of public services has been particularly acute in rural areas of Southern Europe. This article analyses the role that mobility, household composition and family networks play in the strategies that social groups use when facing such periods of uncertainty. We first analyse the changes in the forms of rural governance and in policies aimed at rural territories and societies. Second, we look at the role that mobility and rural households have historically played in strategies of resistance in times of crisis. The plasticity that family and household forms offer in shaping relations of intergenerational solidarity – caring for dependents, material assistance, etc. – is an essential resource in these strategies. These issues are illustrated with examples from fieldwork carried out in the Pyrenees in the region of Navarre. In contrast to the traditional equivalence assumed between the family as a kinship group, the home as a domestic partnership and the household as a space of single residency, our analysis sees them as independent. Our research shows that, in the adaptive strategies of family groups, mobility, networks between homes and the advantages of territorial localization play an essential role.
AbstractThis article considers the social aspects of daily mobility, which is studied as a social product, based on significant family strategies and social practices. Our analysis shows the importance of variables such as the lifecycle of households, class trends and family networks as well as class, gender and generational sub‐cultures. The different forms of daily mobility are seen to be linked to other social strategies (residential, labour, sociability, etc.) that create a varying range of social situations. Urban and mobility policies, urban dispersion, greater automobile use and new trends in the socio‐technical organization of cities exert a great influence on these unequal social positions, promoting new forms of exclusion and social risks. Based on the study of a medium‐sized city in Southern Europe (Pamplona‐Iruñea, the regional capital of Navarra), which is developing fast from a concentrated pattern to one of residential dispersion based on greater automobile use, an analysis is carried out into how family mobility strategies tie in with different sociological profiles. The study aims to provide interesting theoretical and methodological reflections on mobility that will be of use to professionals, institutions and civil movements working in the field of mobility regulation.Resumé Cet article s'intéresse aux aspects sociaux de la mobilité quotidienne, laquelle est étudiée en tant que produit social, en fonction de stratégies familiales et de pratiques sociales significatives. L'analyse montre l'importance de variables telles que le cycle de vie des ménages, les tendances de classe et les réseaux familiaux, ou encore les sous‐cultures de classe, de genre et générationnelles. Les différentes formes de mobilité quotidienne apparaissent liées à d'autres stratégies sociales (résidence, travail, sociabilité, etc.), celles‐ci créant toute une variété de situations sociales. Les politiques de la ville et de la mobilité, la dispersion urbaine, l'usage accru de l'automobile, ainsi que de nouvelles tendances dans l'organisation sociotechnique des villes, influent considérablement sur ces situations sociales inégales, tout en favorisant de nouvelles formes d'exclusion et de risques sociaux. A partir de l'étude d'une ville moyenne du sud de l'Europe (Iruñea‐Pamplune, capitale régionale de la Navarre) qui évolue rapidement d'un schéma concentré vers une dispersion résidentielle grâce à un usage accru de l'automobile, une analyse examine comment les stratégies de mobilité des familles rejoignent différents profils sociologiques. Ce travail vise à produire des réflexions théoriques et méthodologiques sur la mobilité qui soient intéressantes et pertinentes pour les experts, les institutions et les mouvements civils impliqués dans la régulation de la mobilité.
Los diversos retos de cambio para la sostenibilidad de la vida en los espacios rurales atienden a una serie de procesos, dinámicas y políticas públicas que se exponen en este artículo. Se apunta a una serie de procesos como la construcción de un rural cosmopolita, de espacios de intensa movilidad, de proyectos vitales para una juventud con sus propias necesidades y estilos de vida. Contrastamos cómo estas dinámicas de los territorios de baja densidad requieren políticas públicas adecuadas para combatir las desigualdades y los desequilibrios a fin de cerrar las brechas rural-urbanas. Seguidamente, se introducen los materiales que componen este monográfico y que suscitan el debate sobre los pilares que frenan o alientan el fenómeno de la despoblación.
