Abstract

This article examines the transition from hierarchical modes of government to participatory territorial governance in rural areas between 1995 and 2025, using a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of 305 indexed articles. It identifies a strong expansion of scientific production after 2015, concentrated in Europe and Latin America, and an intellectual structure organised into five clusters: sustainable territorial development, participation and social capital, multilevel decentralisation, participatory territorial planning, and environmental governance and territorial justice. The results show that rural territorial governance is a contested political field marked by the gap between formal participation and real empowerment, elite capture and growing socio?environmental conflicts, while the most successful experiences combine decentralisation with resources, multilevel coordination, binding planning instruments and robust mechanisms of environmental and territorial justice. The article concludes that territorial governance offers a powerful framework to articulate rural development, democracy and sustainability, but its effectiveness depends on specific institutional and power configurations, opening a research agenda focused on impact evaluation, reducing territorial asymmetries and strengthening the voice of peripheral rural territories in multilevel decision?making.