Led by the Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (INRAE), with overall funding of more than six million euros, the Ruralitic project will make it possible to deepen sociological research into the rural social space, its experiences and development challenges, among other processes, at different levels of analysis and using studies in alternative European social realities, including Portugal.
A topic with a strong research tradition at the University of Porto, dating back to the sociological work carried out since the late 1970s by José Madureira Pinto, this new European project is led at the University of Porto's Institute of Sociology by Virgílio Borges Pereira, with the respective research team comprising Ester Gomes da Silva, Carla Aurélia de Almeida, João Queirós, José Madureira Pinto, and Sílvia Correia.