POLGEO conducts a systematic, quantitative analyses of the rural–urban divide in the 21st century. The project examines spatial polarization of preferences, its effects on vote choice and abstention, and the consequences of rural depopulation on political and social attitudes. POLGEO was a coordinated project financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and was developed together with professor Pedro Riera (Universidad Carlos III).
In April 2024 we ran a workshop on the rural–urban divide in Barcelona, with the participation of scholars from the project. See the project’s website https://sites.google.com/view/rural-urban-workshop/
Some of the publications resulting from this project are:
Breitenstein, Sofia; Rodon, Toni; Riambau, Guillem; Rodilla, Andreu (2025) Unpacking the rural–urban divide: Identities and stereotypes, Electoral Studies, 96. 
Abstract
The resurgence of the rural–urban divide as a factor shaping political attitudes has gained increasing attention in both public and academic discourse. Although often framed in terms of social identities, less is known about whether people actually express rural or urban identities in their own terms. This study investigates whether rural and urban identities exist independently of other identities such as class or ideology, and how they shape perceptions of in-groups and out-groups. Drawing on open-ended survey responses from a representative sample in Spain – a context where the rural–urban divide has gained political relevance – we use a novel text analysis approach to examine how individuals describe the groups they identify with. Findings show that rural–urban identities surface only marginally without explicit prompting, while identities tied to age, ideology, and education are more salient. When primed, some stereotypical traits emerge: rural communities are associated with nature and a relaxed lifestyle, while urban ones are linked to stress and individualism. A more uniform and stereotyped view of rural areas also appears across both rural and urban respondents.
Sánchez-García, Álvaro; Rodon, Toni; Delgado, Maria (2024) Where has everyone gone? Depopulation and voting behaviour in Spain, European Journal of Political Research, 64(1): 296-319. Abstract
In many European countries, people increasingly leave rural or small municipalities to live and work in urban or metropolitan environments. Although previous work on the ‘left behind’ places has examined the relationship between the rural–urban divide and vote choice, less is known about how depopulation affects electoral behaviour. Is there a relationship between experiencing a loss in population and support for the different parties? We investigate this question by examining the Spanish case, a country where the topic of depopulation has become a salient issue in political competition. Using a newly compiled dataset, we also explore whether the relationship between depopulation and electoral returns is moderated by municipality size, local compositional changes, the loss of public services and changes in amenities. Our findings show that depopulated municipalities give higher support to the main Conservative party, mainly in small municipalities. Yet, municipalities on the brink of disappearance are more likely to give larger support to the far-right. Results overall show that the effect of depopulation seems to be driven by compositional changes, and not as a result of losing public services or a deterioration of the vibrancy of the town. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of the relationship between internal migration and electoral behaviour.
