Rural communities are diverse regarding their geography, values, social resources, and collective priorities (Ahlmeyer & Volgmann, 2023). However, they are often de - fined through strict demographic and economic criteria for setting policies and es - tablishing the local institutional bureaucratic apparatus. Adopting administrative norms to define rurality perpetuates a senseless post-industrial urban-rural dichotomy con demning rural communities to be spaces of decline and decay. Instead, rurality encompasses alternative futures, meaning that the opportunities must not be overshadowed by existing challenges in these territories, which must be acknowledged.

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology