An application of the prospective structural analysis to the design of rural development strategies: The case of the xerez county

Abstract

The Council Regulation (EC) 1698/2005 approved on 20th September 2005 was the starting point of the fourth programme on support for rural development for the period 2007-2013. There are several Spanish regions covered by this regulation, Andalusia is one of them. This paper presents in a synthetic way the methodological approach followed to design the New Rural Strategy for Andalusia (NERA, acronym in Spanish) of the Andalusian regional government and more broadly the use of the Prospective Structural Analysis (PSA) technique. This research suggests that the PSA is a suitable method to analyse the complexity of elements, factors and their interactions in the rural areas, as well as to understand variables in their present and future situation. It has been implemented in Jerez local area and its results are shown. After discussing the results, conclusions have been drawn. Finally the strengths and weaknesses of this methodology have been studied.