Between Marginalisation and Urbanisation: Mobilities and Social Change in Southern Portugal

Abstract

Territories and communities have to deal with constant reconfiguration, with one of its main expressions being the intensification of spatial mobility. The changes that occur in rural areas – namely, the gradual decrease of the agriculture sector and, at the same time, the growth of functional dependency in relation to more urbanised areas – have contributed to an exponential increase of spatial movements such as commuting. Moreover, people are not attached to nor do they relate to their communities and neighbourhoods in the ways that they used to. The way people create their own social ties depends on a complexity of sociological factors such as interpersonal relationships based on mutual trust. This chapter measures the level of spatial mobility in different rural spaces and its impact on people’s daily lives. Through survey information, the social changes that take place in two municipalities in southern Portugal will be analysed: São Brás de Alportel, which has gone through an intense process of urbanisation in the last two decades, and Alcoutim, whose regressive demographic trends are widening.