In areas such as the southeast (or its peripheral regions of La Mancha and the Upper Guadalquivir valley), current knowledge of the demographic, territorial, economic and social dimensions of those trajectories has been greatly enriched in the light of theoretical approaches based on a wider availability of empirical evidence (Lull 1983; Chapman 1990; Gilman 1976; 1981; 1987; Gilman & Thornes 1985