Rural Geography

Code:

GEOGR068

Acronym:

GRUR

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Geography

Instance: 2025/2026 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Geography
Course/CS Responsible:	Bachelor in Geography

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
GEOGR	82	study plan	2	-	6	41	162

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students
Obs.: português

Objectives

- Use appropriately the fundamental concepts and theories associated with rural areas.
- Find, process and interpret carefully, the main sources of information used in the analysis of spaces of rurality, including statistical information, documentary and bibliographical.
- Integrate the fundamental knowledge of the scope of ruralities an interdisciplinary approach.
- Understand the typological diversity of rural areas in a diachronic perspective, as well as their natural and anthropic grounds that in a very complex combination, justify such diversity.
- Understand and interpreting the great issues that concern the spaces of rurality, simultaneously developing skills for defining intervention strategies.
- Questioning the sustainability / revitalization of rural areas with a view to integrated planning of these spaces at the beginning of the XXI century, in a reflective and critical alignment.

- Working as a team, sharing ideas, methods and strategies in a highly interactive environment, foreseeing develop skills leading to the definition of intervention strategies at different scales.

Learning outcomes and competences

- Seizure of fundamental methodologies and theoretical frameworks within ruralities an interdisciplinary approach.

- Search, process and interpret the main sources of information used in the analysis of rural areas (statistical information, documentation, literature ...)

- Knowledge of typological diversity of European rural areas, its potential and problems

- The importance of multifunctionality of European rural areas

- Perception of the importance of the agricultural and forestry sector in the European / global context

- Identify the characteristics of those territories, their reasoning and problem.

- Develop skills leading to the development of strategies for sustainable intervention in these spaces.

- Questioning the sustainability / revitalization of Europe's rural areas with a view to integrated planning of these spaces in a reflective and critical alignment.

- the diversity of statistical and documentary sources that focus on rural areas, especially Agricultural Censuses; its relevance

- Working as a team, sharing ideas, methods and strategies in a highly interactive environment, foreseeing develop skills leading to the definition of intervention strategies at different scales.

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

Not applicable

Program

The European Rural Space in a dynamic and globalized context: 

1 - Rurality: from material production to the consumption of the immaterial.
2- The diversity of agricultural, pastoral and agro-pastoral productive systems in the appropriation of territories in the Ancient world.
3- The globalization of the economy and the "new" agriculture
4- 19th century modernization and the loss of centrality of agriculture in the economy
5- The duality of culture and land ownership systems in peripheral countries: companies with land and landless peasants.
6- Productivist policies, the crisis in peasant agriculture and the formation of globalized agro-industrial complexes
7- Post-war rural depopulation and the shape of the common agricultural policy in Community Europe
8 - Post-productivism and rural development: multifunctionality, preservation of natural resources and the landscape
9- The community support framework and financial / institutional solidarity

Mandatory literature

Covas, António;; A caminho da segunda ruralidade
Pierre Barral; Les sociétés rurales du XXe siècle, Armand Colin, Paris, 1998
Chaléard, J,L.; Charvet, J.P.; Géographie Agricole et Rurale, Beli, Paris, 2004
Comissão Europeia; Investir no futuro da Europa. Quinto relatório sobre a coesão económica, social e territorial, Serviço das Publicações da União Europeia, 2010
Covas, António; As^medidas rurais. ISBN: 972-9175-87-X
António Covas; Ruralidades III, temas e problemas da ruralçidade pós-agrícola e pós-convencional, Universidade do Algarve, Col. Economia e Gestão, 2008
EU-DGARD; Rural Development in the European Union. Statistical and Economic Information. Report 2012, 2012
Woods, Michael; Rural, Routledge, Edition Publ. in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2011
FAO; The State of food and agriculture, 2012
Figueiredo, E.; A periferia das periferias - áreas protegidas em espaços rurais, Princípia Ed., Estoril, 2007
BATH, B. H.; ; História Agrária do Ocidente Medieval (500-1850), Ed. Presença, Lisboa
António Covas; A grande transição; Maria das Mercês Covas, Edições Colibri, 2011
Alain Berger; Pascal Chevalier; Geneviève Cortes; Marc Dedeire; Héritages et trajectoires rurales en Europe, L'Harmattan, 2009
Martine Guibert et Yves Jean (Dir.); Dynamiques des espaces ruraux dans le monde, Armand Colin, Paris, 2011

Complementary Bibliography

Ant´; Ruralidades III, temas e problemas da ruralçidade pós-agrícola e pós-convencional
Alain Berger; Pascal Chevalier; Genevi`; Héritages et trajectoires rurales en Europe

Teaching methods and learning activities

Lectures and practical classes in which will be taught the basic syllabus. Predominates in these expository but with intense participation of students component.
- The lectures are complemented with practical application, in which they perform work for the application of apprehended themes; this work will finish in group and in them Agricultural Censuses will be valued

-Another component of the course is the tutorials.

- Research will further that the student acquires diverse methodological skills in order to be able to organize a properly framed work, questioning reality and to make proposals in order to solve the various problems that focus on spaces of rurality.

Software

Microsoft Office Word Projector "data-show" e computador de sala Projector "data-show" e computador de sala Microsoft Office Excel Microsoft Office Power Point

keywords

Social sciences > Geography > Economic geography
Social sciences > Geography > Regional geography
Social sciences > Demography
Social sciences
Social sciences > Economics > Agrarian Sciences

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Exame	60,00
Participação presencial	5,00
Trabalho escrito	20,00
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	10,00
Trabalho prático ou de projeto	5,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Elaboração de relatório/dissertação/tese	31,00
Estudo autónomo	75,00
Frequência das aulas	41,00
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	15,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

Attendance of 75% of classes, except in cases provided for by law. To validate the subject, the student must obtain a classification that, at least, must be 9.5 values. Both theoretical-practical classes and tutorial guidance are subject to a mandatory face-to-face regime, which is why attendance will be one of the components to be considered in the assessment.

Calculation formula of final grade

Attendance of 75% of classes, except in cases provided for by law.
The final classification results from the result of the exam that focuses on theoretical material, to which the classification of practical work is added. The practical component will only be validated if the theoretical component is greater than 7.5 val. Furthermore, the practical component includes field work, the creation of a poster, etc.
The final average for the subject results from the combination of all previous components, proposing the following formula:
- theoretical- 60%
- practical work (report), 20%
- oral presentation, debate - 10%
- poster and participation - 10%

Examinations or Special Assignments

Not applicabe

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

For the cases provided for by law, students (special assessment) will have to complete the same components presented above, adapting contact times and other aspects considered necessary, agreed with the teacher at the beginning of the semester.
In this context, Student Workers and other cases provided for by law, in addition to the theoretical part, will also have to carry out practical work that will form an integral part of the assessment, with a tutorial orientation.

Classification improvement

Assessment component susceptible to appeal and assessment improvement: theoretical part.

Observations

Assessment component subject to appeal and assessment improvement: theoretical part.