The attraction of foreign-born immigrants to rural areas in developed countries has aroused growing interest in recent years. The central issue in this study is the demographic impact of immigration in rural Spain, focusing on depopulated areas. The economic and demographic consequences of depopulation have become major concerns, and the arrival of international migrants has come to be seen as a possible solution. The aim of this study is to add to a literature in which qualitative research and local or regional perspectives predominate. The present research draws on quantitative findings for a significant part of Spain. The evidence in this study is principally based on population figures for the last years of the 20th century, a period of low immigration to Spain, and the early years of the 21st century, when the inflow of foreign migrants gathered intensity. We also explore the early consequences of the present economic crisis, which began in 2008. The analysis is based on estimates of native and foreign-born population growth for a range of territorial aggregations. Counterfactual techniques are also used. The results show that the arrival of immigrants has so far contributed substantially to reducing and even halting or reversing depopulation. A further series of analyses concentrates on the potential of rural areas to retain immigrants in the long run. The study also recommends a comprehensive policy approach in this regard.

The phenomenon of rural depopulation has been an intense and centuries-long process in the mountain areas of Aragon in Spain. Throughout the nineteenth century, the traditional economic model of these territories broke down due to the crisis suffered by seasonal sheep migration, the non-viability of the old forms of agricultural production based on self-sufficiency and the destruction of the scattered textile industry. The new scenario offered some possible alternatives in sectors such as livestock, timber, mining and energy production or the activities associated with tourism and second homes. However, it is only these latter activities that have demonstrated some capacity to alter significantly the demographic tendencies, and even then they have done so in a somewhat delayed fashion and in a way limited to a small proportion of the geographical areas under study.

New economic geography, Population history, Locational fundamentals, Increasing returns, J10, N30, O18, R23,

información del artículo Historia del artículo: Recibido el 21 de noviembre de 2013 Aceptado el 28 de mayo de 2014 On-line el 15 de agosto de 2014 Códigos JEL: N34 N54 I39 Q11 R22 Palabras clave: Alimentación España Productos lácteos Transición nutricionalr e s u m e n Este artículo reconstruye la evolución de las disparidades en el consumo de productos lácteos en España entre mediados de la década de 1960 y comienzos del siglo xxi. En los inicios del periodo, había disparidades acentuadas entre unas regiones y otras, así como una clara jerarquización social en el consumo de la leche y sus derivados. La fase de gran expansión en el consumo vivida hasta aproximadamente la década de 1980 fue posible gracias al cierre (total o sustancial) de estas brechas. A partir de entonces fue tomando forma un nuevo régimen de consumo cuyo patrón de segmentación se caracterizó principalmente por una rejerarquización social del consumo de los productos más novedosos y dinámicos (derivados refrigerados) y la presencia de un importante componente generacional en el retroceso experimentado por el consumo de leche. a b s t r a c tThis article reconstructs the evolution of disparities in the consumption of dairy products in Spain from the mid-1960s to the early twenty-first century. At the start of the period, there were strong regional disparities, as well as a clear pattern of social hierarchization in the consumption of both milk and milk derivatives. These gaps were (totally or substantially) narrowed during the phase of great expansion in consumption that took place until the 1980s. From then on, a new consumption pattern began to take shape, its segmentation pattern consisting mainly of social re-hierarchization in the consumption of the newest and most dynamic products (refrigerated derivatives), and a significant generational factor in the contraction of milk consumption. © 2014 Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. on behalf of Asociación Española de Historia Económica.Los promedios nos han enseñado la mayor parte de lo que sabemos sobre el cambio alimentario en la España contemporánea. Nos han enseñado, por ejemplo, que entre finales del siglo xix y las Correo electrónico: collantf@unizar.es décadas finales del siglo xx se desplegó una transición nutricional que condujo a una dieta más abundante y en la que ganaban protagonismo los alimentos de origen animal (Cussó y Garrabou, 2009). También nos han enseñado que, a lo largo de las últimas décadas, ha emergido un nuevo régimen de consumo alimentario caracterizado por el estancamiento de los consumos físicos y un desplazamiento de los mismos hacia alimentos cada vez más http://dx.

Abstract:Through a case study of dairy products in Spain, this article discusses the evolution of what economist Louis Malassis called ‘food consumption models’ in the West from the Second World War. Two distinct consumption models are identified: a first model based on the massification of milk consumption, and a second model featuring decreasing dairy consumption, an increasing role for second-degree processed products and the emergence of new consumer segmentations. Rather than a sudden shift from the first to the second model, there was a punctuated sequence comprising an intermediate transition period in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Using an evolutionary political economy approach, I argue that the key to this transition was a transformation in consumer preferences resulting not only from changes in nutritional discourse, but also from changes in the profit making strategies of dairy agribusinesses and from the interaction of both trajectories of structural change with consumer agency.