This edition contains a selection of the articles produced by participants at a meeting in Alcázar do Sal, Portugal, in December 2002. Twelve participants from Foundation-supported projects in four Latin American countries (Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela) and four European countries (Scotland, Spain, France and Portugal) identified and reflected on a broad spectrum of themes and problems around growing up in these two rural environments, analysed the new rural challenges and related them to the work of their own ecd projects. They explored the important contextual realities of the environments in which they operate; explained the conceptual frameworks that underpin the responses that they have devised and put into practice; and identified a number of significant themes for programming.
