RESINA, a project to mobilise the innovative potential of rural áreas (IMAGE)
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The interuniversity project Roots of Resilience: Rural Knowledge for a Sustainable Future (RESINA) has been launched with the aim of identifying, validating and transferring sustainable ways of living that emerge from the heart of rural Spain. Researchers from three universities (Universitat Jaume I of Castelló, the Public University of Navarre and the University of Cádiz) are leading an initiative that seeks to transform the prevailing narrative about rural areas, highlighting their value as key spaces for social innovation and collective resilience in the face of the major challenges of the 21st century: the ecological emergency, depopulation and social fragmentation.
Funded by the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda, the project will focus on documenting practices based on neighbourly cooperation, agroecology, the social economy, mutual care and communal resource management that have enabled rural communities to sustain themselves under adverse conditions.
RESINA will carry out fieldwork in a total of nine pilot municipalities characterised by extreme rurality, located in the provinces of Castelló and Cádiz and in the Chartered Community of Navarre. Specifically, these are Viver, La Jana and La Mata in inland Castellón; Benaocaz, Grazalema and Zahara de la Sierra in the Sierra de Grazalema (Cádiz); and Aoiz, Auñamendi (Aribe) and Roncal-Salazar (Erronkarri) in the Navarrese Pyrenees. Using a rigorously participatory methodology based on participatory action research (PAR) and citizen science, the approach actively involves local driving communities and stakeholder groups from the outset.
The project has achieved significant national recognition by being selected by the Spanish Ministry of Culture to participate in the 9th Culture and Ruralities Forum, which will take place in Zafra (Badajoz) from 20 to 22 October 2026. This event, organised by the General Directorate of Cultural Cooperation with the Autonomous Communities, is a leading forum in Spain for reflecting on the intersections between cultural creation, the social fabric and the future of rural areas. RESINA has secured its place among the select group of projects participating in this ninth edition. The principal investigator, Xavier Ginés, professor at the UJI, and the coordinators at the UPNA and UCA, Andoni Iso and Antonio J. González, respectively, will participate.
More information: resina.uji.es
Credit
Universitat Jaume I of Castellón
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