ABSTRACT
The existence of disadvantaged rural areas in Spain, as in many other Western countries, is a phenomenon which has its origin in the crisis of traditional agriculture and the dismantling of a social system based on and around agriculture. In Spain this crisis was linked to the Economic Stabilization Plans (during the Franco dictatorship), which since 1959 accelerated the deep economic and territorial changes, and had a negative impact on the most backward and least adaptable rural areas. These areas were a source of cheap labor for industry and services in the urban and industrial sectors. The rural exodus left many areas almost completely devoid of population and economic activities. Several decades later, rural communities are resisting disappearance, as they try through various strategies to adapt better to the new challenges of globalization the emergence and development of productive and social functions that were unknown just a few decades ago.
