The “Dehesa” and the “Montado” in the Academic Debate. A vision from the Economic History

Abstract

This publication seeks to increase knowledge, or, in other words, to increase debate in the scientific and academic sphere, regarding the predominant agricultural-silvicultural-pastoral system in some regions of Spain and Portugal, which has been called “dehesa” in the case of Spain and “montado” in Portugal. Specifically, the main objective that we set ourselves is to verify the stage in which the research on these realities finds itself, as well as to call attention to the issues that have been ignored and which we feel are necessary to address. In this sense, we must state that the rural development built on the potential offered by these territories has not been sufficiently addressed, hence the idea of carrying out the International Congress on "The Montado in the Rural Development of the Southwest of the Iberian Peninsula” from which this thematic number arises. To be more specific in this introductory article, we intend to carry out an analysis of the existing bibliography related to these realities with a triple purpose. In the first place, to know the situation in which the state of the art of the research on this subject is from a quantitative point of view to verify if scientific debate is currently being generated. And, secondly, to carry out a qualitative analysis that allows us to identify the topics under debate in the scientific field regarding these realities. Third, serve as an introduction to the reader concerning the original articles presented at the aforementioned congress.