Les ruralitats. Els micropobles de Lleida

Practically since the mid-nineteenth century, with greater or lesser intensity depending on the historical moment, we have witnessed a progressive displacement of the population from rural to urban areas. And for the first ones, the reduction in population has brought social effects (aging of the demographic pyramid; brain drain, given that trained young people cannot be established to develop all their capacities for the existing labour structure; reduction of social, health services, educational and banking services…) and territorial effects (abandonment and/or little care of agricultural, forestry and even housing properties) that need to be known and analysed. The solution does not seem easy or achievable in short term. A dynamic of urban concentration that has lasted for decades is not easy to stop and reverse, even partially and slowly.

That is where this starts from, it aims to be a first approximation to the rural situation of the Lleida regions through a multiple-level diagnosis, framed in a portrait of the discourses and policies in an international scale (especially of the European Union [chapter 1]) and state [chapter 2]). And focusing on Lleida, the situation and the evolution from the perspective of demography and human geography are deepened in chapter 3, to continue with urban planning (chapter 4), the labour market (chapter 5), social services (chapter 6), health services (chapter 7) and educational services (chapter 8). The writing of these texts has started from existing sources (secondary) and in some cases, few, from field work necessary to delve into the existing gaps. And it must represent the starting point for the analysis of the rural realities of Lleida and of the diverse situations and experiences of those who reside.