The rural periphery – problems and possibilities of development in the Peruvian North West

Abstract

The territory and its inherent natural conditions to each place are given as environmental assets and their configuration respond to dynamic processes which are changing through long time periods. Though, as showed in this paper, the territory may also be understood as the changing element of development. In the simple development model the two more important factors that decide the trajectory, dynamics and structure of changes that favor the geographic landscape are the human and economic capital. To these we may add the relative location which as it interacts, conditions the intensity of processes positioning a region as peripheral or central.

In this paper we present an analysis of the development conditions of some Peruvian regions and their status of the peripheral rural economies in contrast with the dynamic development of the central regions (as it is the capital of the country or other urban-industrial and mining regions).