The politics of place: Official, intermediate and community discourses in depopulated rural areas of Central Spain. The case of the Riaza river valley (Segovia, Spain)

This paper provides theoretical and methodological arguments to study the politics of space in small marginal and depopulated areas of Spain. The case for research is the Riaza river valley in the province of Segovia.Usually the analysis of rural space (and the geographical space in general) provides opposing presentations: vertical, between global and local or horizontal between urban and rural or in community–out of community. Fewer contributions adopt as an objective the configuration of spatial categories into a small area. This contribution differentiates the politics of small rural areas into three main levels or spheres: (1) official, (2) unofficial or intermediate and (3) community or spontaneous. Between these levels there is conflict but also collaboration, founded on the specific nature of the situation or problem and the agents and actors involved in each one. The methods are mainly qualitative with complementary documentary sources (local newspapers, official documents from regional and environmental administration). The interview program presents two phases: (1) with people involved in the decision-making process at an area level and (2) with representative figures (in professional and social term) in the study area. The conclusions confirm the existence of different parallel and segmented discourses in each level and also between levels of decision-making.