Abstract

Methodological approaches and recent contributions relating to the explanatory capacity of metaphors of vulnerability and resilience as applied to analyses of land use are reviewed. A new and original proposal is made in respect of their application to de-industrialized areas. The effectiveness of this focus is dependent upon a rigorous diagnosis of the problem of de-industrialization. This involves the availability of quantitative and qualitative indicators permitting characterization and assessment both of the situation of vulnerability caused by industrial crisis and of the responses indicating an area's capacity to adapt. The hypothesis adopted is that resilience constitutes a strategy taking concrete shape in actions creating new conditions suited to urban and local growth and revival. It cannot be hoped that de-industrialized areas will return to the same state in which they were prior to their crisis or decline. In order to check theory and practice, an empirical trial was carried out, taking as its reference the coastal district of O Morrazo in the Spanish Province of Pontevedra.