This intervention presents a preview of the results of ongoing research on masculinities and rurality in the Valencian Community (Spain) conducted by Joan Sanfélix.

The seminar will present some figures from the survey carried out during 2023, where basic aspects about perceptions and positions on equality, feminism, prostitution, and pornography, among others, will be addressed. In addition, the seminar will offer a comparative perspective between these results and those obtained in previous research on Valencian urban males, which offers a more comprehensive view of potential differences and similarities between masculinity from the point of view of this variable on the type of habitat.

Secondly, the aim is to offer a preview of the first analyses of focus groups carried out in 2024 with Valencian men living in rural areas. In a context that can be characterised as a “patriarchal backlash”, these groups offer an interesting overview of the penetration of certain discourses among different strata of masculinity.

Finally, we will reflect on the potential explanatory capacity of the rural in relation to masculinity and certain contemporary social drifts, highlighting the scarce scientific production focused on this binomial (masculinity-rurality) and some possible bibliographical references in Spain and Portugal.

Joan Sanfélix Albelda is Professor of Sociology at the UNIVERSITAT JAUME I DE CASTELLÓ (UJI) (Spain) where he is a member of the research group: “DESiRES - Sociology and Social Research Methodologies. Inequalities and Resistances”. At the same university he is also a lecturer in various postgraduate studies on gender equality.

In addition, he has been teaching in the postgraduate degree of University Specialist in Masculinities, Gender, and Equality at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche since 2021, where he is an integral member of the Observatory of Masculinities.

He studied Sociology (2006) and took the Master’s Degree in Gender and Equality Policies (2009) at the University of Valencia. Subsequently, he obtained his PhD in Gender Studies at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (2017), obtaining an excellent Cum laude qualification and receiving the Extraordinary Doctorate Award.
He has been secretary of the international congresses CIMASCIGUAL I and II on Masculinities and Equality held at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche in 2019 and 2022.

He is the author of several scientific and informative publications on masculinities and equality, including the book: “La brújula rota de la masculinidad” published by Tirant Humanidades (2020) or the recent article in the Journal ex aequo: Sanfélix Albelda, Joan, and Téllez Infantes, Anastasia (2023). La base ideológico-social de los discursos del odio misógino: una lectura cuantitativa de los hombres valencianos. ex ӕquo, 48, 107-124. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22355/exaequo.2023.48.08