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Abstract
The institutionalization of rural territorial development programs was
accompanied by an intense academic effervescence on the subject. However, one of the most
widespread criticisms of the literature produced is that it has a normative character, it lacks
theoretical substance on social interaction and thus the territory seems to be reified by
public policies. This essay has aimed to build an analytical framework for understanding
the socio-political processes underlying the implementation of rural territorial development
policies, organizing a conceptual instrument that would structure a relational approach to
territorial development. It is considered that the approach adopted in this paper can provide
empirical analyzes of different directions for those already expressed in previous works on the same object, reaching yet unexplored dimensions in the territorial development studies, such as the network of
organizations, its historicity, its settings and the social and institutional factors that influence the activities of the
actors in the territory, guiding its development trajectory. This theoretical and analytical construction leads to the
assumption that “actors”, “networks” and “institutions” summarize the major components of the social dynamics of
the territories and, therefore, defining elements of the trajectory of rural territorial development.