Compared Analysis of the Empirical Evidence and Global integration of Results

Starting date: April 2014

Duration: 5 months

Description:

The project’s sixth task aims to reassess and synthesize the empirical evidence obtained in the previous stages and tasks, in order to carry out the global articulation of the results. Particularly the articulation between social representations on rural areas and rurality (derived from tasks 2, 4 and 5), demands and consumptions of and on rural territories and products (obtained in tasks 4 and 5) and the rural development strategies and policies (assessed in task 3) will be unveiled. A reassessment of these strategies and policies will be performed, particularly focusing on the more recent ones. Therefore a compared analysis will be developed and a common methodology for data articulation will be established and used in a systematic way.

An important output of this sixth task will be the cartographical representation of the Portuguese symbolic geographies of the rural, through the use of selected results deriving from tasks 2, 3, 4 and 5. This cartographical representation will also act as a powerful instrument to make more visible the project’s results, i.e., the different imaginaries and meanings on/of diverse rural areas and types of rurality within Portuguese territory, furthermore supporting the recommendations and guidelines regarding rural development policies and strategies, to be performed in the following task.

Moreover, within this task it is expected to obtain important results about the ways in which the different domains, sources and data interrelate. The results obtained will be extremely important to perform task number seven, particularly in establishing a number of guidelines to inform rural development policies, strategies and measures.

Additionally, the results of this task will be of fundamental importance to start the production of the documentary-film on diverse (and crossed) views, images and meanings on the rural and on rurality in Portugal.

Furthermore the outputs from this task will be of paramount relevance to start the preparation of the  Workshop with rural development agents and organizations, the Final International Conference, the Final Report, as well as the Book, which constitute important milestones within the ‘Rural Matters’ project.