This article delves into how metaphor and narrative function as central tools in the cultural and emotional understanding of rural landscapes, particularly in contexts of socio-economic transition. Drawing from case studies in Spanish villages, the author investigates how storytelling, local rituals, and spatial metaphors construct a collective sense of place, sustaining community identity amidst depopulation, modernisation, and policy shifts. The article argues that the magic attributed to rural life is not a romantic fiction, but a symbolic framework that supports social cohesion and resilience. It emphasises how residents draw upon symbolic figures—saints, spirits, animals—as well as narrative motifs such as the journey, the return, or the transformation, to give meaning to their lived environment. These metaphors act as cognitive and affective maps, allowing inhabitants to interpret change and contest external impositions, particularly those framed by technocratic rural development models. The study ultimately proposes that rural regeneration must include an engagement with local epistemologies and cultural grammars, recognising that what is at stake is not merely infrastructure but the imaginative architecture of belonging.
Ortega, A. (2015) ‘Metáfora y narrativa: la magia de los pueblos, un relato para el cambio’, URBS. Revista de Estudios Urbanos y Ciencias Sociales, 5(2), pp. 109–116.
