In the first part the paper presents the evolution of the rural develoment theories from 50s to nowadays. Consequently, in the second part, it is addressed the issue of how the transition from subsistance economy, to traditional economy, to agricultural economy, to rural economy could delineate virtuous processes of local development in specific contexts. This concept is futher developed in the third part, where territorial development is analysed in accordance with international studies, and more specifically with European ones, and in the forth where the topic is critically focused in the framework of the Brazilean literature
