From ideal town to real town: rurality according to two NGOsaimingto rescue depopulated villages

Abstract

In the last few decades, small agglomerations of the Argentine humid pampas have grown into a matter of public interest. Frequently identified as “ghost towns” (due to their demographic decrease background), they have recently become sites of tourist and even migratory interest among urban dwellers. This paper focuses on the the assessments and actions of two NGOs from Buenos Aires city which have become public speakers against rural depopulation and which promote rural development projects involving tourism and urban-rural migration. I statethat these organizations interventions are aimed at confirming “structures of feeling”about rurality thatusually diverge from the assessments and dynamics of the rural dwellers themselves. In order to show this contrast, I describe the intervention of one of these NGOs in Villa Quintana, a small-sized railway town where identity revitalization projects proved to be difficult to sustain.