Sustainable Development in Rural Territories within the Last Decade: A Review of the State of the Art

Rural territories play an important role when progress is made toward a balanced regional development; thus, an analysis is required of the components and/or factors which have contributed to sustainable development. Therefore, the main subdimensions and variables identified represent the ecological, social and economic dimensions in rural areas. Rural area development is characterised by complex social phenomena, such as the lack of job opportunities, conditions of poverty, unequal development and health services coverage and quality, among others. Consequently, the dynamics and realities of rural territories pose great challenges to sustainable development, arising the following question: What components and/or factors represent sustainable development in rural territories? Therefore, this study aims to use SLR to identify a set of variables relevant to sustainable development in rural territories under the economic, social, and ecological dimensions of sustainability. Based on the foregoing discussion, the systematic literature review (SLR) method is applied. This procces consists of four phases: approach, search and selection, extraction, and information analysis. Then, five subdimensions and 59 variables are established in the Economic Dimension, seven subdimensions and 63 variables in the Social Dimension and five subdimensions and 42 variables in the Ecological Dimension. The results contribute to the comprehensive analysis of the object of study, the main subdimensions in which the ecological, social, and economic dimensions of sustainable development in rural territories are found. Likewise, it is intended to relate all these components found with some of the objectives of sustainable development so that, having a positive impact on these variables, the fulfilment of these objectives is reached to improve the well-being of rural regions.