A recent transition in rural development policies is that of a move from a narrow sectoral approach of rural development, to one that adopts a broader territorial vision. This relatively new theoretical perspective is of peculiar interest to academics and politicians in Latin American countries where, since the mid 1990s, the concept of new rurality has been seen as the beginning of a new approach to rural development. The purposes of this research are: a) to clarify the analytical signposts of the new rurality in Latin America; b) to identify the main analytical differences between sectoral and territorial approaches in fostering rural development; c) to analyse how the new rurality approach could be applied in heterogeneous rural economies. The application is realized in Maule Region (Chile), where at present a strong agrarian economy co-exists with a weak rurality. The study is developed by means of a cluster analysis that uses selected agro-environmental, institutional, social and economic variables. Each of these variables considers the specific attributes of the new rurality approach. The results of this analysis will help policy makers identify suitable rural development policies that are conceived for each cluster and the specific extra-urban economies it represents. Finally the research proposes a new index - Peasantry Development Index PDI – conceived as a specific instrument to monitor rural development policies and their impacts on peasantry.
