Research on community resilience has been ongoing for decades. Several studies have been carried out on resilience in different groups and contexts. However, few address the relationship between community resilience and depopulated rural areas. This study aims to dig deeper into this, considering the concrete impact of population decline in Spain. We carried out a systematic review of the most relevant contributions. A search protocol was developed and used to consult ten databases. Different combinations of terms such as ‘community resilience’, ‘rural’, and ‘depopulation’, or related terms, were used. 22 scientific texts were analysed. We obtained a set of publications that demonstrate the heterogeneity of research methods, approaches and analytical processes applied to the study of this relationship. A mostly qualitative approach was observed, either as the main technique or complementary to documentary reviews. The results underscore the complex nature of rural depopulation and related constructs. It emphasizes the specific importance of community resilience in these territories in terms of social capital, endogenous resources, sustainability, economic dynamism, local responsibility and effective governance. The findings identify a scarce mention to social intervention professions, which should have a more important role due to their core values. In the studies reviewed, it appears as an emerging and scientifically relevant area to explore, both for investigation and intervention purposes. The strength of a multidisciplinary approach to addressing the phenomena appears in the discussion as a main potential line of research.

As urbanisation increases, questions arise about the desirability of further urban growth, as it was not accompanied by corresponding economic growth, and social and environmental problems began to grow in the largest cities in the world. The objective of the article is to substantiate the limits of urbanization growth in Kazakhstan based on the study of theoretical views on this process, analysis of the dependence of social and economic parameters of 134 countries on the urbanisation level and calculation of the urbanisation level that contributes most to economic growth and social well-being. To achieve the goal, the following tasks have been set and solved: theoretical views on the process of urbanization have been generalized; a hypothesis has been put forward about the emergence of an “urbanization trap” in which the growth of large cities is not accompanied by economic growth and improvement of social well-being; an analysis of the dependence of socio-economic indicators on the level of urbanization has been carried out on the example of 134 countries of the world; the level of urbanization that maximizes economic growth and social well-being is calculated; the necessity of the development of small towns in Kazakhstan is substantiated. To solve the problems, the methods of logical analysis, analogies and generalizations, economic statistics, index, graphical, Pearson correlation analysis, Spearman and Kendall rank regression based on models in SPSS were used. As a result, the following conclusions are made: the hypothesis of a possible deterioration of socio-economic indicators in large cities is confirmed; the best positive result is demonstrated by the level of urbanization of 50%–59%. The recommendations are justified: in Kazakhstan, it is necessary to adhere to the level of urbanization no higher than 59%; the growth of urbanization should be ensured through the development of small towns; it is necessary to improve the methods of managing the process of urbanization and develop individual city plans.