Acceso usuarios
, Antonio Garrido Almonacid
Se analizan cambios relativos a la población, su distribución geográfica y los usos del suelo. El área de estudio es la Sierra de Segura, una comarca de media montaña mediterránea localizada en el ángulo nororiental de la provincia de Jaén. Como en casi todo el interior peninsular ibérico, este ámbito presenta un acusado declive poblacional, que incluye la desaparición de numerosos núcleos habitados. Igualmente, se ha producido una simplificación paisajística por la reducción de los aprovechamientos forestales y la consolidación de un monocultivo olivarero. La rapidez de estos procesos no es óbice para que aún sean reconocibles elementos heredados del modelo agrario tradicional, que poseen gran interés cultural y educativo.
Spain is one of the most prominent examples of the deepening territorial imbalances associated with the antagonism that has hitherto dominated rural-urban relations. This is one of the causes, although not the only one, of the enormous surface area covered by areas beset by depopulation (Burillo, Rubio and Burillo, 2019). Naturally, the intensity of this process admits degrees and requires different scales of spatial and temporal analysis to understand its complexity and diversity, with special emphasis on the specific characteristics of each place. In any case, it should be remembered that more than 60% of Spanish municipalities are in regressive dynamics, which includes not only the smallest nuclei, but also county seats and provincial capitals (González-Leonardo and López-Gay, 2021); or that half of Spanish municipalities have a population density of less than 12.5 inhabitants/km2 (Ministerio de Transición Ecológica y Reto Demográfico 2019). In parallel to demographic transformations, Spanish rural areas have also undergone an intense economic and social transformation, framed in what has been called deagrarianisation, i.e. the loss of local ways of life and production as a result of economic globalisation (Camarero, de Grammont and Quaranta, 2020), translated into a drastic reduction of agricultural employment in the second half of the 20th century (Collantes Guitérrez, 2007).
