Procesos de exclusión social y (nueva) pobreza en el medio rural y estrategias de resiliencia en la Sierra de Alcaraz y Campo de Montiel (Albacete)

The 2008 crisis does not only affect cities, it is also a phenomenon present in rural areas. This and the various solutions adopted by public administrations to reverse it have increased and diversified the excluded population. This paper identifies and characterizes the main (and new) vulnerable population groups existing in rural areas, and examines their actions to address exclusion processes. From the study of the rural region of the Sierra de Alcaraz and Campo de Montiel (Albacete, Spain) and the conduct of twentytwo semi-structured interviews with various key actors, we can say that resilience strategies continue to revolve around traditional options (community organizations, socialfamily networks or, in the worst case, emigration), because any progress on this line has been interrupted by the continued dismantling of the Welfare State. Consequently, on the one hand, the rural milieu analysed has a new vulnerable group (“normalised” families) with certain specific features compared to the traditional groups in a situation of social exclusion. On the other hand, however, the reasons why the excluded population, in general, are more vulnerable are increasing and diversifying.