This issue is dedicated to the International Congress on Rural Development, organized by the Andalusian Academy of Regional Science and Loyola Andalucía University and its Development Institute in Córdoba (Spain) in June 2023. The objective of the Congress was to review the conceptualization of rural development and the design and operation of its instruments in light of the challenges of the 21st century. It analyzed the relevance of the ruralist approach and the dynamics of territorial rural development in development strategies and in the public policies built around this theme. Five thematic axes were defined:
1. Poverty and exclusion in the rural world.
2. Growth, agriculture and rural development.
3. Food security and rural development.
4. The challenge of depopulation and emigration in the rural world.
5. Rural development, climate change and natural resources.