Rural development or development of dynamic rural territories? The contribution to territorial imbalances by the Development Programas in southern Spain, Andalusia

Abstract

The territorial effects that have the Rural Development Programmes in Southern Europe, in the region of Andalusia (Spain) have been varied. Based on the maximum level of disaggregation of the approved projects under the LEADER and PRODER initiatives, it has been analized a set of synthetic variables at the project level, municipalities and local action groups in order to assess to what extent have performed such programmes to the development of the most disadvantaged areas of the region, or in the opposite way, have increased the pre)existing differences.The investigation has revealed in the region of Andalusia that most of the initiatives have focused on the most dynamic areas, the most populated, in which there was a business sector that has been able to take advantage of access to european funding, which has reinforced its leadership role against the most depressed areas with little social and business capital.