Rural depopulation is not reflected solely in demographic statistics. It is also evident in the way municipalities explain their problems, communicate their initiatives, and prioritize certain development strategies. A recent study published in CIRIEC-España, Revista de Economía Pública, Social y Cooperativa analyzes these narratives in the Sierra de Montánchez region of Extremadura to understand what municipalities are doing to address population loss and what their actual scope for action is.
Narrativas locales sobre despoblación rural y desarrollo territorial: el caso de la Sierra de Montánchez (Extremadura)
This research examines the extent to which municipal strategies and initiatives reported by local media align with the Sustainable Development Goals and regional public policy frameworks. To this end, 47 journalistic texts were analyzed through a multiple-case study focused on Alcuéscar, Montánchez, and Valdefuentes. The study combines qualitative analysis assisted by MAXQDA with natural language processing techniques, such as tokenization, lemmatization, sentiment analysis, and topic modeling.
The results show that municipal action is concentrated primarily on tourism and the agri-food sector—two areas closely linked to the territory’s own resources and in which local governments have greater capacity for intervention. In contrast, advanced digitalization, energy, social innovation, and productive transformation feature much less prominently, largely due to their dependence on funding, regulation, and coordination at the supra-municipal level.
Depopulation from a Local Perspective
The Sierra de Montánchez comprises twenty-one municipalities in the province of Cáceres and has a population of approximately 15,300. Its low population density, aging population, unemployment, and reliance on traditional activities make this region a particularly relevant case for studying local responses to depopulation.
However, the region also possesses significant territorial assets: historical heritage, cultural and nature-based tourism, agri-food fairs, olive oil production, and a municipal cooperation framework organized through the Mancomunidad Integral Sierra de Montánchez.
The central question, therefore, is not merely to determine whether resources or initiatives exist, but to identify which of them gain the greatest public visibility and to what extent they can actually contribute to reversing the demographic decline.
What Do Local News Reports Cover?
To answer this question, the study analyzes news reports as expressions of the region’s priorities, concerns, and institutional capacities. Local and regional media allow us to observe which actions are presented as responses to depopulation and which issues are left out of the public narrative.
The corpus was coded using categories related to the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals and to strategic sectors such as agri-food, energy, health, information and communication technologies, and tourism. Qualitative coding made it possible to identify not only the most frequent topics but also implicit priorities and significant omissions in municipal narratives.
The analysis was complemented by natural language processing tools. Tokenization and lemmatization facilitated the identification of recurring concepts, while sentiment analysis allowed for an examination of the overall tone of the content. The Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm was also applied to detect underlying themes related to economic opportunities, migration, and technological challenges.
Tourism and Agri-Food: The Main Local Responses
The most striking finding is the high prevalence of SDG 8, related to decent work and economic growth. Initiatives linked to this goal focus particularly on promoting tourism, agri-food fairs, showcasing cultural heritage, and marketing local products.
Tourism emerges as the most visible strategic sector, with initiatives aimed at positioning the region as a rural, cultural, natural, and gastronomic destination. The agri-food sector also plays a prominent role, particularly through trade fairs, quality products, smart agriculture, and projects to digitize the production chain.
These activities yield visible results in the short term, rely on local resources, and can be promoted directly by municipalities. In addition to generating economic activity, they help strengthen territorial identity and community cohesion.
The results show that SDG 8 accounts for 27 instances in the analyzed corpus, while tourism accounts for 29 references and agri-food for nine. By comparison, information and communication technologies appear only twice.
Where are the main gaps?
The lower presence of certain activities does not necessarily mean they are unimportant. On the contrary, some of them—such as digital connectivity, technological innovation, energy, or advanced services—are essential for rural revitalization.
The problem is that their implementation requires investments, technical expertise, regulation, and resources that typically exceed the capabilities of small municipalities.
The energy initiatives identified, for example, stem primarily from programs promoted by the Cáceres Provincial Council. Something similar occurs with digitization, where news reports reflect specific actions—such as the modernization of the agri-food sector or smart tourism signage—but not a fully consolidated digital strategy.
The discourse analyzed thus reveals a still aspirational orientation toward Smart Rural models. Digitalization is recognized as an opportunity, but it has not yet been systematically integrated into the local economy.
The Tone of Depopulation
Sentiment analysis shows that approximately 60% of the articles have a predominantly negative tone, associated with vulnerability, population loss, social exclusion, and a lack of opportunities.
This conclusion is important because narratives do not merely describe reality; they also influence how the population and institutions interpret the problem.
When depopulation is primarily framed in terms of youth out-migration, an aging population, and a lack of opportunities, municipal agendas tend to focus on employment, entrepreneurship, and population retention. However, this framing can push other dimensions—such as social innovation, gender equality, education, housing, or the inclusion of vulnerable groups—into the background.
What Can Municipalities Actually Do?
The study identifies a clear asymmetry between the areas in which local governments can intervene directly and those that depend on higher-level administrations.
Municipalities have greater capacity to organize fairs, promote cultural heritage, support tourism events, or promote local products. In contrast, the creation of digital infrastructure, the transformation of the productive sector, the improvement of health services, or the implementation of energy projects require coordination with provincial councils, autonomous communities, and national governments.
This difference is also reflected in public communication: municipal actions are covered more frequently and in greater detail, while policies dependent on external investments receive less visibility. The article identifies this disparity as one of its main findings.
From News to Public Policy
Based on the findings, the authors propose a set of analytical heuristics to classify local responses and identify areas of action that have been insufficiently addressed.
These heuristics include issues such as school dropout rates, the gender gap, aging, infrastructure, youth training, active labor market policies, social services, subsidies, economic activity, and social exclusion.
They are not presented as a universal list of best practices, but rather as a tool for interpreting local priorities, identifying strategic gaps, and comparing rural areas with similar characteristics.
The main methodological contribution lies precisely in combining media narratives, institutional frameworks, the Sustainable Development Goals, and natural language processing techniques. This approach allows us to observe aspects that are rarely reflected in traditional demographic or economic indicators.
Can this strategy be applied to other areas?
The results cannot be statistically generalized to all rural areas, as the study focuses on three specific municipalities. However, the analytical framework can be used to identify recurring patterns in areas that share similar socioeconomic, demographic, and institutional characteristics.
Future research could incorporate interviews with municipal officials and local stakeholders, minutes of council meetings, strategic plans, and other institutional documents. It could also utilize geospatial tools and large databases to study the relationships between population density, connectivity, mobility, and access to services.
A Rural Future Based Solely on Tourism?
Tourism and the agri-food sector can generate employment, strengthen territorial identity, and make use of rural areas’ own resources. However, on their own, they are unlikely to reverse structural depopulation processes.
The revitalization of these territories requires combining local initiatives with investments in education, connectivity, innovation, energy, housing, public services, and youth participation. It also requires stable mechanisms for multilevel governance that allow policies to be tailored to the actual capacities of each municipality.
As the study shows, local narratives are a valuable source of insight into not only what these territories are doing, but also what they are not yet able to do on their own. Understanding this distinction is essential for designing rural policies that are more realistic, coordinated, and context-sensitive.
Source: “Narrativas locales sobre despoblación rural y desarrollo territorial: el caso de la Sierra de Montánchez (Extremadura)”. Luis Miguel Garay Gallastegui, Ricardo Francisco Reier Forradellas y Sergio Luis Náñez Alonso. CIRIEC-España, Revista de Economía Pública, Social y Cooperativa, 117, 2026, pp. 229-262. DOI: 10.7203/CIRIEC-E.117.28842