Ferreira, J. M. CarvalhoPeixoto, João2022-12-222022-12-221992Ferreira, J. M. Carvalho and João Peixoto .(1992) . “Rural sociology and rural development in Portugal - History, recent trends and prospects” . Irish Journal of Sociology, Vol. 2: pp. 122-141. (Search PDF in 2022)2050-5280 (Online)http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/26563History of the rural world of Portugal may justifiably begin in the present: with the major problems affecting Portuguese agriculture, demographic contraction in the countryside and the uncertainty that prevails in the reconversion of rural areas. The basic problems facing Portuguese agriculture have often been debated. The sector's output and productivity figures are fairly low: the country fails to produce the primary goods it requires and its food shortage is chronic. When talking of rural studies as a whole in Portugal, it is common practice to say that they may essentially be distinguished by their micro or macro approach (Cabral, no date; Lima 1991); one may also add that they have passed from a post-1974 phase, in which the structuralist focus prevailed, to present phase in which case studies predominate (Cabral, no date). This last phase may reflect the growing awareness of the multiple complexities that characterize the rural fabric, besides the fact that die frontiers are becoming more and more indistinct. Whatever case, it was the coincidence of theoretical approaches and empirical studies, combined with the theoretical fertilization of different disciplines, that has enabled us to grasp the distinctive traits of the Portuguese rural space, as well as its heterogeneity, both of which are naturally linked to the international specificity of Portuguese society.engRural SociologyPortuguese AgricultureRural DevelopmentDemographic ContractionPortuguese Societyjournal article