Rural Urban Relations Research Papers (original) (raw)

Several research studies reflect changes in the Isan region in northeast Thailand, from an underdeveloped and disadvantaged area, to a new Isan. This article aims to identify some aspects of restrictions and proposals for change to help support the new Isan. Aspects of capitulation are explained, and opposite-vertical aspect discourse negotiated between Isan-ness and urban-ness. Self-identity was examined in eight young people from Isan youths who traveled to Bangkok for undergraduate studies. Data was gathered by in-depth interviews from May to September 2017 and analyzed.
Results were that the power of opposite-vertical aspect discourse influences restriction of change in the Isan region insofar as quality of life for samples improved in Bangkok. At the same time, the power of opposite-vertical aspect discourse also affects urban identity disclosure, unlike online media space in which samples revealed more of their personal identity. Samples used narrative to negotiate their Isan identities in real life and in online spaces, to emerge from the opposite-vertical aspect discourse in order to argue for acceptance of people from Isan in an un hierarchical national community and build a hybrid Isan identity as a mixture of Isan-ness and urban-ness.
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Keywords: Identity, Changing, Isan, Undergraduates.

- by
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- Social Change, Thai Studies, Identity (Culture), Rural Urban Relations

El objetivo de este capítulo es profundizar en la idea de la diversificación laboral del campo y la intensificación de las relaciones entre el campo y la ciudad. Estos dos fenómenos se encuentran asociados a un proceso de cambio social profundo de las áreas rurales, el cual es visible, sobre todo, desde la década de los ochenta y noventa del siglo pasado. Estos cambios en el espacio, la sociedad, la economía y la política y planeación rural cuestionaron los paradigmas con los cuales se había explicado lo rural, y han dado lugar a nuevos enfoques y conceptualizaciones. Se parte de la tesis de la reestructuración rural, planteada por Terry Marsden y Jonathan Murdoch (1994), la cual profundiza, entre otras cosas, en el fenómeno de la desagrarización de lo rural.

- by Larralde-Corona H Adriana
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- Rural Urban Relations

Physical spaces play an important role in the fiction of Michel Houellebecq, as they are tightly connected to the problem of the “quest for identity”. The seemingly aimless déambulations of his protagonists evoke this desperate pursuit of the lost identity whose reconstruction Houellebecq sees as possible only in the context of a particular geographical location. I argue that this somehow marks his turn to the traditional Morian representation of utopia: an elsewhere which offers a possibility of a radical social reorganization.
In this regard, Houellebecq opposes the hostile, alienating urban spaces of Paris to the idyllic rural zones of provincial France. The increasingly accelerated world of the global city is contrasted with the traditional pre-globalisation values preserved in the countryside. This pastoral mythicisation of rural France represents Houellebecq’s romantic reaction against 21st-century capitalism, embodied in cosmopolitan urban spaces. The countryside thus becomes a fetish for the modern city-dweller: “la campagne était redevenue tendance”, says the narrator of The Map and the Territory. However, the protagonist of the novel admits that “the map is more interesting than the territory”, which implies the illusionary character of this idealised rural utopia.
This paper argues that Houellebecq’s use of the image of rural purity, in its opposition to dystopian urban representations, reflects Zygmunt Bauman’s idea of the shift in our liquid modern society from the “longing for independence” to “longing for belonging”. Houellebecq’s Serotonin only confirms that the desired “fusion sublime” between individual subjects is no longer possible in the urban environment, which makes them roam through contingent social interactions like elementary particles, as the title of one of his earlier novels suggests. However, the fantasised harmony of the countryside appears to be nothing more than a spectacular escape from violent reality and not a real alternative to it.

- by Maša Uzelac
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- Anthropology of Mobility, Michel Houellebecq, Urban mobility, Tourism

This report aims at providing detailed information on the question of urban-rural linkages in the case of India, except regarding the topic of food systems. It does follow the structure indicated in the terms of reference, i.e.,... more

- by Eric Denis and +1
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- Indian studies, Urban Planning in India, Urban and rural development planning, Rural Urban Relations

The Covid-19 pandemic, its duration, and its intensity are harbingers of demographic change. In the context of social demography, it is crucial to explore the social challenge emerging from the coronavirus disease. The main purpose of this study is (i) to explore the determinants that affected the population in Greece in terms of social isolation, during the lockdown period and (ii) to examine possible differences in the assessment of the social isolation factors depending on whether individuals live in urban or rural areas or regions with relative geographical isolation. Field research was conducted with 4,216 questionnaires during the first wave of COVID-19 (March to 11 April 2020). Multivariate analysis methods were applied to detect the main factors that impacted the feeling of social isolation, and non-parametric tests were performed to detect possible differences between population groups. Despite the resistance shown to the spread of the disease, the Greek population totally complied with the measures of social distancing and thus was socially and psychologically affected. The results indicate that psychosomatic disorders, employment situations, changes in sleep habits, socialization on the internet, demographic status, health concerns, and trust in government and the media response determine the Greeks' social isolation feeling. Pandemic and confinement measures have consequences for individuals and social groups and may prejudice social cohesion at multiple levels. By understanding how the pandemic affected the societies, interventions, and public policies may be implemented to ensure both social cohesion and populations' wellbeing, by addressing the social isolation feeling.

- by Evgenia Anastasiou
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- Social Demography, Greece, Rural Urban Relations, Social Isolation

Integrated urban-rural planning in Southwest China: Sustainable views and local marketing. This article focuses on the implementation of China central government “integrated urban-rural planning” through the new landscape scenarios becoming visible in Chongqing peri-urban area. Two case studies explore new forms of ecologic tourism and bio-agriculture regulated by a “top-down” approach in which local institutions and industrial stakeholders appear to play the biggest role. The discourse analysis conducted through a semiotic lens, is aimed at questioning the sustainable views carried out by politics at the local level. In doing so, the research points out how the city as entrepreneur makes use of place marketing to enhance the consumerist potential of natural resources, leaving behind a material ambiguity forged by alternative ideas of the rural.

- by Michela Bonato
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- Urban Geography, Urban Planning, China, China studies

Book review of Gone to Ground: A History of Environment and Infrastructure in Dar es Salaam by Emily Brownell

This essay is in response to the question "What is 'critical' in critical urban anthropology?" My answer to this question delves into my experience of doing ethnographic research at the ends of Delhi Metro lines, places that I came to see as critical sites of urbanism-ruralism and the intersecting mobilities of the National Capital Region. The "critical" is a method and position that both reveals and interrogates social inequity and power differentials on and through the urban-peri-urban and more rural landscapes.

- by Rashmi Sadana
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- Anthropology, Ethnography, Mobility/Mobilities, Space and Place

Human settlements evolved from primitive villages to towns, then to the classic cities and shaped by war, trade, religion, politics and the natural environment. Cities are probably the most complex things that human have ever created.... more

- by Rajendra P Sharma
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- Rural Urban Relations

El presente documento constituye un breve informe o reseña de lo debatido en la actividad de formato taller realizada el viernes 19 de febrero de 2021. Bajo la intención de debatir sobre los aspectos implicados en las posibles definiciones teóricas de los espacios periurbanos se seleccionaron cinco perspectivas (territorial, económica, social, ambiental y de la planificación y el ordenamiento territorial) y determinados ejes de análisis vinculados a las mismas que contribuyeron al intercambio abierto entre los/las participantes. Para el abordaje de la actividad se escogieron como bibliografía principal cuatro textos que fueron complementados con demás material de lectura. Asimismo, para cada perspectiva se incluyeron algunas citas textuales que, tomadas de la bibliografía sugerida, fueron referencias o disparadores para el debate en torno a los ejes propuestos. Los participantes, de acuerdo a sus experiencias de investigación y la lectura bibliográfica propuesta, contribuyeron al desarrollo de un debate interdisciplinario.

- by Juan Pablo Venturini and +2
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- Geography, Human Geography, Urban Planning, RURAL-URBAN FRINGE

A partir de pesquisa etnográfica realizada nos últimos anos no sul de Moçambique, o presente artigo responde antropologicamente à pergunta colocada por um telespectador moçambicano sobre o porquê da
inexistência de sujeitos homossexuais em contextos rurais locais. O argumento central aqui apresentado é de que ainda que o desejo (homo)erótico preceda e prescinda da linguagem, a constituição de um sujeito propriamente homossexual não. Logo, as cidades oferecerão não apenas um ambiente propício para a vivência de experiências eróticas e identitárias desse sujeito, mas também a episteme necessária para que ele se constitua como tal.

- by Francisco Miguel
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- African Studies, Rural-to-urban Migration, Africa, Sexuality

Many years, urbanisation research has largely focused the development of urban agglomerations and megacity regions, whereas less attention was paid on the development of medium-sized cities, small towns, villages, or rural areas. Yet many interrelations and spatial linkages between urban and rural areas exist. In this paper, we present a novel method called ‘TOPOI’ for the integrated analysis and description of settlement units in an urban–rural setting. The TOPOI-method enhances the understanding of the built environment by clustering and describing settlement units of similar characteristics with view to their physical form, function, and connectivity. The method is built on known planning parameters, but does not limit the analysis of settlement units to their administrative boundaries. Based on 11 indicators, 13 TOPOI-classes were identified in two exemplary study regions revealing new insights into urban–rural settlement types. This allows a better understanding of urban–rural linkages and therefore opens up new pathways for a more sustainable development.

- by Vanessa Miriam Carlow and +2
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- Settlement Patterns, Sustainable Rural Development, Sustainable Urban Development, Rural Urban Relations

The maintenance of urbanisation in Turkey appears to be on a trend whereby it will lead to further lack of solution in the existing situation not only by reason of its effect in terms of magnitude and dispersion on population movements and settlements, but on the basis of its multidimensional nature including social, ecological, economic politic and rural-urban associations. This unsustainable trend of urbanisation stems from the domination of neoliberal urbanisa-tion policies aiming at rapid development which the state turns a blind eye to by extending merely limited and insufficient interventions in response. Such a trend bears similarities in developing countries notably including Turkey and around the world and brings along with it necessities for varying solutions. The qualitative and quantitative domination of urban spaces is prescribed to continue to disperse itself in near future with small-sized cities pointed out as the type of settlement to accommodate the population increase arising from such a trend. Such settlements will thus be positioned as a special and prioritised element in suggestions for new approaches to urbanisation. Medium-sized cities have not been discussed outside the axes of population and basic socioeconomic development so far. However, these cities may constitute the main axis of a significant approach focusing on solutions on the basis of different potentials, characteristics, and linkages for the unsustainable course of urbanisation observed in Turkey. The present study concentrates on small-sized cities as a means to find a new pathway in the midst ÖZ Türkiye kentleşmesinin, sadece nüfus hareketleri ve yerleşim-lerin büyüklük ve yayılma etkileri bakımından değil, toplumsal, ekolojik, ekonomi-politik ve kır-kent ilişkilerine dair sorunlar içeren ve devam etmesi halinde mevcut durumu daha da çö-zümsüz kılacak bir gidişatı söz konusudur. Hızlı büyümeye ça-lışan ve neoliberal kentleşme politikalarının baskınlığına sınırlı ve yetersiz müdahalesiyle devletin de göz yumduğu bu sürdü-rülemez kentleşme eğilimi, gelişmekte olan ülkeler kadar dünya geneli için de benzerlikler taşırken farklı çözüm arayışlarını da beraberinde getirmektedir. Yakın gelecekte kentlerin niteliksel ve niceliksel baskı ve yayılmasının süreceği ve bu gidişata daya-lı artan nüfusu en çok barındıracağı öngörülen yerleşme türü olan orta ölçekli kentlerinse (OÖK) önerilecek yeni kentleş-me yaklaşımları içinde özel ve öncelikli bir yere sahip olması gerekmektedir. Şimdiye kadar nüfus ve temel sosyo-ekonomik gelişme ekseni dışında ele alınmayan OÖK, ülkemizdeki sür-dürülemez kentleşme seyri için farklı potansiyeller, nitelikler ve ilişkiler üzerinden çözüm yaklaşımının temelini oluşturabi-lecektir. Türkiye kentleşmesinin sürdürülemezliğinde, yeni bir yol arayışı için OÖK'yi odağına alan bu çalışma bu bakımdan OÖK'nin hangi niteliksel boyutlar ile ele alındığında kentleşme-Planlama 2018;(Ek Sayı 1):73-90 |

- by Çare Olgun ÇALIŞKAN
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- Rural Urban Relations

Depuis le milieu des années 1980, les politiques nationales de dévelop-pement au Laos ont favorisé le déplacement des populations des hautes terres vers les zones rurales de plaine. Ces relocalisations initiées par l'État ont induit d'autres formes de mobilité, de nature plus spontanée. Ainsi, depuis le cap du millénaire, la croissance urbaine se nourrit d'un véritable exode rural touchant particulièrement les tranches les plus jeunes de la population tant masculine que féminine. C'est ce qui a pu être observé à Houay Yong, un village tai de la province de Houaphan, que les jeunes quittent de plus en plus nombreux pour tenter leur chance en ville, essentiellement à Vientiane, la capitale. Cet article, de nature exploratoire, pose un regard anthropologique sur les ressorts de cette mobilité, en mettant l'accent sur l'intégration dans l'économie (inter)nationale, les ima-ginaires de la ville et de la modernité, l'évolution des liens générationnels et de genre, l'attachement émotionnel au village et la persistance de principes hiérarchiques fondés sur l'ancestralité. Summary.-The Rural Flight in Laos. Mobility, Youth and Kinship in Houay Yong (Houaphan Province).-Since the mid-1980s, the highlands of Laos have been affected by a policy promoting resettlements into the lowland countryside. This policy eventually had a leverage effect on other forms of mobility of a more spontaneous nature. Since the turn of the century, the urban population has grown tremendously, due to a strong rural flight of the youth-both male and female. This has been observed in Houay Yong, a Tai village in the province of Houaphan. More and more youths leave the village to take a chance in the city, especially in the capital, Vientiane. This paper highlights, from an anthropological perspective, the driving forces of this process, with a focus on the villa-ge's integration into the (inter)national economy; the imaginary of the city and of moder-nity; the evolution of generation and gender relations; the emotional attachment to the village; and the persistence of a hierarchy based on ancestrality. * Communication présentée à la séance académique d'ouverture tenue le 12 octobre 2017. Texte reçu le 13 janvier 2018, soumis à peer-review.

- by Pierre Petit
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- Demography, Rural-to-urban Migration, Migration mobilities, Migration

The summary of research results in the field of Swiss urban
history over the past twenty years is reason to draw attention to the
growing interest in the subject of the medieval and Early Modern
period city from a modern perspective. It is therefore possible to
formulate a hypothesis which, due to the threatening desperation
over today’s urban development, the unstructured phenomenon
known as ‘urban sprawl’ effecting the entire Swiss ‘Mittelland’ with
all its negative consequences (the destruction of the environment, the
vanishing identity of areas as a result of architectural homogeneity,
the collapse of transport infrastructure and the unravelling of social
relations in an urban agglomeration dubbed the ‘Megacity’), can
encourage and legitimise the expansion of research on the early city.
However, an evaluation of the results of research on urban history
over the past two decades must include reflections on the historical
development of cities in Switzerland, as the characteristics of the
urban networks, their space between them and their gravitational
centres determine the results of research in terms of content: the
dominance of larger city-states with substantial territory (Bern,
Luzern, Zürich) to which many smaller rural towns are linked politically
and economically. Besides this, centres known as ‘Länderorte’,
medium-large settlements lacking the quality of cities, however held
within the confederation and from a legal perspective a position
equal to large cities. Likewise, various quantitative assessments of
individual cities can – on the second level of institutional conditions
for the study of urban history – be addressed as a consequence of the
specific form of the Swiss network of cities. The power superiority of
former city-states over smaller cities and towns can be explained in
historiography on the basis of the fact that important archives and
all of the universities are found in the former mentioned.
Although there is no formal facility at the academic level in Switzer-land
(with the exception of the Swiss Association for the Study of
Urban History (Schweizerischer Arbeitskreis für Stadtgeschichtsforschung)
where research is conducted on the medieval and Early
Modern period city from a historical perspective, many publications
do address urban history. The political relaxation in Central and
Eastern Europe that occurred in 1989/1990 had no significant impact
on this development, neither in the area of research work nor from the
perspective of its conceptual focus. The same is true for the numerous
individual publications on urban history; the idea that the apparent
triumph of capitalism and the end of the Cold War have an impact
the interpretation of facts and the choice of subjects should however
not be hastily rejected. Perhaps the declining interest in quantitative
economic research can be explained by the fact that scholars at the
end of the twentieth century were confident that they had found the
definitive answer to the question of the most successful economic
model.
From the perspective of classic legal, economic and social aspects
of urban history, four areas of research that appeared in recent years
have been profoundly influenced by the concept of ‘linguistic turn’
and other ‘turns’ that returned historiography to its linguistic-logical
roots and subsequently increased its sensitivity to the historicization
of language and verbal communication, space and image. This
indicates the rather significant international engagement of Swiss historiography,
within which, however, it is not possible to speak of the
specific creation of these historical theories. In any case, in addition
to the way the city was considered in the past and the legal and symbolic
contexts it was grounded in, equally interesting information was
also obtained on the everyday conditions in which communication
occurred within the city or between cities. The research of symbolic
behaviour occasionally showed a substantial overlap of discourse
with the spatial category, at the very least in studies on the issue of
borders and relations across borders, or in cases involving affronts
to honour and the defence of honour.

- by Thomas Manetsch
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- Urban History, Public Space, History of Switzerland, Rural Urban Relations

Globalisation has introduced new sources of mobility for India’s youth, yet not all youth
experience mobility in the same way. The unevenness of mobility trajectories is especially
visible in regional towns, where poor rural migrants and more globally connected middleclass
youth occupy the same social space. To illustrate these mobility trends, this paper
presents the stories of youths from various backgrounds in the town of Darjeeling, exploring
different sources of mobility for rural and urban youth. While rural youth experience some
forms of upward mobility as they migrate into the town, urban youth are confronted with
downward mobility and are frustrated in their aspirations for professional careers and
‘modern’ lifestyles. For aspiring urban youth, upwardly-mobile rural people are seen as a
threat to their privilege, blocking their mobility aspirations. This is contributing towards
emerging tensions between rural and urban populations within the town.

- by Trent Brown
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- Youth Studies, Mobility/Mobilities, South Asian Studies, Cosmopolitanism

This article explores the effects of the recent economic transformations in Laos on Buddhism with regards to large-scale donation rites and the ritual temple economy. An ethnographic case study of a donation of a wealthy business woman from Vientiane for the renovation of a rural temple is discussed as an example of an emerging prosperity Buddhism that reflects increasing competition, rural-urban differences in wealth, and a conjuncture of market and religion. However, the Lao case also exposes some differences from prosperity cults in Thailand and Myanmar that have been researched. Although the donation rite involved advertisement and branding related to the business of the donor, I argue that traditional notions of collective merit-making and other aspects of the moral economy of rural Buddhism are still significant. By discussing the organizational aspects of the ritual, I show that the continuity of these moral economy aspects, such as the limited role of the main donor, and the emphasis on collectivity, are reinforced by a politics of religion still marked by remnants of socialist discourse. I finally argue that the donation rite created a temporary space where social differences between the diverse rural and urban participants were downplayed, but that this could not hide the increasing inequalities and stratifications that now mark much of Laos’ social fabric

- by Patrice Ladwig
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- Buddhism, Laos (Lao PDR), Social Stratification, Ritual Economy

The shift towards an urbanised world is generating profound social, economic, and environmental complexities. Agglomerating regions require new understandings to capture the socio-spatial restructuring of this planetary urbanisation. In China, top-down rural urbanisation policies such as the Characteristic Town, or tese xiaozhen, address urban-rural polarisation through a ‘one-town-one-characteristic-industry’ model aiming to generate localised rural economic development. Characteristic Towns have been criticised as only superficially addressing local challenges, imposing tabula-rasa developments that extend urbanisation into rural areas, excluding vulnerable groups. Within the mega-urban Yangtze River Delta corridor, the Smart Moulding Town in Huangyan-Taizhou’s hinterland is leading regional industrial upgrading processes, epitomising visions of politicians, planners, and developers. The urban-rural interface is undergoing a fragmented transition towards industrialisation while villagers adapt their local economies and everyday practices, generating new socio-spatial typologies for dwelling. This inductive research reveals the role of villagers in shaping, and being shaped by, top-down rural urbanisation programs. The multi-scalar theoretical framework is structured around private, collective, and institutional layers of dwelling, interrogated through Lefebvre’s spatial production theory. Uncovering hybrid urban-rural qualities and actor networks, the empirical findings illustrate that villagers’ micro-scale tactics are deeply embedded in trans-local industrialisation processes, redefining rural identities and defying top-down spatial compartmentalisation by negotiating informality.

- by Ava Lynam
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- RURAL-URBAN FRINGE, Urban Sociology, Social Production of Space, China studies

Rather than distinguishing locality-types by their supposed ' rural' (or ' urban') characteristics, more attention should be devoted to classifications which build on dominant causal processes. An illustrative scheme is presented drawing on O'Connor's competitive, monopoly and state market sectors. There are numerous papers on the concept 'rural' and its empirical manifestations. Why add to the forests already sacrificed to this conceptual edifice? Largely, because distinguishing locations by their ' rural ' attributes has hampered understanding of geographical variations in socioeconomic conditions. Another reason is the recent publication of Cloke and Edwards's (1986) index of rurality. This paper is not a criticism of Cloke and Edwards (1986), but raises questions about the utility of their rurality index. If this index is taken at face value, its simplicity could lull researchers into ignoring fundamental questions about the nature and causal importance of ' rural '. Since this index is likely to take over from Cloke's (1977) earlier schema in delimiting rural Britain in many research studies, its validity is of some importance. This is especially so if, as argued here, the concept at the core of the index is more mirage than reality. Perhaps, as ' rural ' is a widely understood notion amongst the general population, it seems incongruous to contend that it is an invalid concept. But, for the general public, 'rural' only refers to a broadly understood settlement (or landscape) type. The concept is not used for the precise delimitation of rural areas and it is not imbued with powers to explain geographical differences in socioeconomic con ditions. For social researchers, however, these are key concerns. Yet when the concept 'rural' is used in an explanatory context, far from being helpful, it is a hindrance. The explanatory structures of rural investigations were underpinned by notions of a rural-urban continuum until the mid-1960s. The discrediting of this conceptualisation left a theoretical void. So far, repeated calls for a more precise and theoretically meaningful definition of ' rural' have not been met satisfactorily (Wilkinson 1985). Indexes like Cloke and Edwards's continue to frame their classifications around a rural urban continuum, and continuum ideas still permeate many commentaries on' rural' affairs. Clout (1984, 7) provides one illustration. This is in his list of the attributes of rural areas: (1) a low population density; (2) loose networks of infrastructure and services; (3) tight networks of personal contacts and a strong identity with home localities; (4) below average manufacturing and office-based employment; and (5) a landscape dominated by farmland and forestry (similar views are identified in Pacione 1984, 3). It is the third of these which is aligned with the discredited idea that social behaviour is distinguished along a rural-urban continuum (Pahl 1966). The fourth is linked to the idea that primary and service sector employment dominates rural labour markets; an assumption that neglects recent shifts in manufacturing employment towards rural areas (Keeble 1984), the possibility that telecommunication advances will push offices in the same direction, and the decline in agricultural employment'. The sum effect of the first, second and last of these criteria is to suggest that ' rural ' areas

- by Keith Hoggart
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- Rural Urban Relations, rural diversity
- by Aleksej Kalc
- •
- Slovenian History, Rural livelihoods and economy, Trieste, Rural Urban Relations

The major developments of the early modern period had an uneven impact on urban and rural dwellers, leading to divergences in worldview and mentality between the two demographics. This article reflects upon these differences through a microhistorical study of an episode in Joseph Emin’s Life and Adventures, where Emin, an eighteenthcentury “port Armenian” encounters Armenian villagers in the Ottoman town of Jinis. My reading of this episode provides a focus for broader reflections on the growing divergences between the viewpoints of a port Armenian like Emin, who was connected to the developments taking place in the early modern world, and that of rural dwellers like the local villagers and priest of Jinis, who were largely disconnected from the same developments.

The URA periodical is an annual open-access publication, which will accompany the Sino-German research and development project Urban-Rural Assembly (URA,01LE1804A-D), sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the FONA program Sustainable Development of Urban Regions (NUR). By combining scientific and essayistic writings, photographic works, and/or ethnographic studies including interviews, spatial mappings and drawings, the URA periodical will seek to bridge academic, practice and policy discourses around global sustainability challenges and integrated planning and governance approaches at the urban-rural interface.

Rural-urban interface never vanishes but only slides outwards from the city core as the city grows. This interface, so-called “peri-urban area”, is characterised by “dynamism” and “diversity” as it acts like the place where movements of people, commercial goods and capital take place. As a consequence, peri-urban area becomes the zone of coexistence of rural and urban areas, and constitutes a strong linkage between the two words. The Ecocity project in Cenaia aims to reorganize the expanding urban structure by giving a new identity to the margins of the city. The goal of the project is to valorize the urban fringe through an exper-imental co-farming/housing habitat and utilize peri-urban agriculture as its principle function. Furthermore the peri-urban area is revitalized by touristic, recreational and commercial activities. The aim of this paper is to point out the role of peri-urban agriculture that offers a symbiosis between urban and rural worlds.

- by saverio mecca and +1
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- Resilience, Urban Planning, Urban And Regional Planning, Urban Agriculture

This article explores how women interpreted everyday clothing practices and decoration
of their body and how they positioned themselves in diff erent social milieus
during the period of socialist Slovenia (1945–1991). The new socialist middle class in
Slovenia and Yugoslavia was defi ned by participation in a lifestyle, created and expressed through consumption and behaviors that turned everyday life into a symbolic
display of taste and cultural distinction. This article shows the ways women engaged
in self-expression and negotiated dressing up. It analyzes the self-emancipation of
women as they challenged the boundaries of social hierarchies on the basis of selftransformations, pointing out the active role that women had in their self-positioning
in social categories.

- by Polona Sitar
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- Gender Studies, Social Class, Rural Urban Relations, Self-positioning

The COVID-19 pandemic, its duration, and its intensity are harbingers of demographic change. In the context of social demography, it is crucial to explore the social challenge emerging from the coronavirus disease. The main purpose of this study is (i) to explore the determinants that affected the population in Greece in terms of social isolation during the lockdown period and (ii) to examine possible differences in the assessment of the social isolation factors depending on whether individuals live in urban or rural areas or regions with relative geographical isolation. Field research was conducted with 4216 questionnaires during the first wave of COVID-19 (March to April 2020). Multivariate analysis methods were applied to detect the main factors that impacted the feeling of social isolation, and nonparametric tests were performed to detect possible differences between population groups. Despite the resistance shown to the spread of the disease, the Greek population totally compli...

- by Evgenia Anastasiou
- •
- Social Demography, Social Sciences, Greece, Rural Urban Relations

1 City Hinterlands in European Space - Keith Hoggart
2 Diversity in the Rural Hinterlands of European Cities - Vincent Briquel and Jean-Jacques Collicard
3 Commuter Belt Turbulence in a Dynamic Region: The Case of the Munich City-Region - Claudia Kraemer
4 Residential Growth and Economic Polarization in the French Alps: The Prospects for Rural-Urban Cohesion - Nathalie Bertrand and Emmanuelle George-Marcelpoil
5 Urban Spread Effects and Rural Change in City Hinterlands: The Case of Two Andalusian Cities - Francisco Entrena
6 Tensions, Strains and Patterns of Concentration in England’s City-Regions - Steven Henderson
7 Convergence and Divergence in European City Hinterlands: A Cross-National Comparison - Keith Hoggart

- by Keith Hoggart
- •
- RURAL-URBAN FRINGE, France, Spain, United Kingdom

In Cities Surround the Countryside, Robin Visser investigates the transformation of Chinese urban aesthetics in the postsocialist period, a time in which, she contends, urbanization has become dominant. Tracking the manifestations of urbanization in fiction, cinema, visual art, architecture, and urban design, this study argues that the built environment has important political, social, and cultural implications. In part 1, Visser looks at urban design, architecture, and urban planning, theorizing the dynamics of a place-space tension" (p. 20). Part 2 reads urban lm, art,
and literature to develop a comparison of Shanghai
and Beijing, arguing that the Chinese urbanization is
bringing about unevenness, not homogeneity. Part 3
looks at the relationship between space, urban aesthetics, and the production of subjectivity; in other words, it investigates the internalization of urban aesthetics within the consciousness of the individual. A plethora of well-reproduced images benefit the text.

- by Alexander F Day
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- Art History, Architecture, Urban Studies, Chinese Art

For several decades, periurban areas in the Ecuadorian Andes have undergone important changes due to the densification of habitat or the development of capitalist agriculture. However, while this region must face the challenges of the food supply of its urban population and the one of the protection of the natural resources in a context of global changes, it seems essential to think about the periurban areas in the Ecuadorian highlands to assess to what extent they could become useful areas for the provision of food and environmental services. Thus, this article collects the results of research carried out in the cities of Riobamba and Cuenca to analyze territorial dynamics in four periurban areas in order to provide arguments that allow rethinking the spatial framework of public development policies in the Ecuadorian Andes to improve the urban-rural articulation. From a theoretical point of view, this leads us to approach and define the notion of lifeshed in order to think about the emergence of sustainable urban-rural territories.

- by Nasser Rebaï
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- Human Geography, Development Studies, Ecuador, Andes

En este artículo se documenta, utilizando el caso de un ejido del Valle de Toluca, la transformación de las actividades laborales, la movilidad geográfica y las relaciones campo-ciudad. El periodo de análisis, 1940-2000, abarca la transición de los procesos de trabajo hacia una etapa posproductivista del campo, de las formas urbanas dominantes y la movilidad espacial. En el estudio se utilizaron entrevistas e historias de vida. Los resultados mostraron la transformación del trabajo, vinculado en una primera fase con la producción campesina agrícola, hacia ocupaciones dentro del terciario y la industria. Además, se observó una salida del trabajo del espacio local al hinterland regional, y el predominio del commuting como forma de movilidad. Finalmente, se presentó la transformación de las relaciones campo-ciudad, con el rompimiento de la relación de la población rural con la ciudad de México y el surgimiento de vínculos con ciudades de menor tamaño y a menor distancia.

- by Larralde-Corona H Adriana
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- Rural Urban Relations

In this article I examine rural Chinese women's migration
to the cities before and after the post-Mao
reform. I argue that rural young women's pursuit of
a modern identity during the more recent migration
has to be understood in the context of a
changed rural-urban relationship resulting from
China's postsocialist development in an era of flexible
accumulation. I analyze how a contradiction
between freedom and violence dialectically constitutes
the search for a new, modern subjectivity by
rural young women in China today, [gender, labor
migration, modernity, subjectivity, rural-urban relations]

- by Hairong Yan
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- Labor Migration, Gender and Development, Rural Urban Relations

The object of this research is the experience of Rudolf Wilhelm Leberecht Migge (1881, Gdansk - 1935, Flensburg) as a landscape architect and author, undertaking both in the professional practical area and in the broad debate with his contemporaries, advocating for a specific type of landscape project: the one aligned with the movements of reform of the parks and gardens that formulated the architectural landscape as opposed to the picturesque. Within this aspect, Migge sought to reconcile the countryside and the city, exploring social and economic issues in a landscape architecture proposal facing at the mass of the urban population and food production, understand in this research as productive landscape. The role of productive landscape was discussed, which sought centrality to debate, in the professional and social area, the importance of maintaining housing and productive garden themes linked; model assimilated in many projects, including social housing, Siedlungen (Settlements). In addition, Migge sought to expand in his projects the limits of landscape architecture, incorporating in the design of urban frees spaces the agrarian development of food self-sufficiency, as well as the territorial management of urban waste, reverting them into compost for food production, a bias exceptional among his contemporaries landscape architects. The objective was to insert Migge and his formulations in the debates on landscape architeture, urbanism and architecture, taking as a starting point his texts and some of his projects, as well as other primary sources such as journals and books by his contemporaries professionals. The sources used in this thesis approach these themes: the rational and technical principles of landscape architecture and their relationship with German identity; the social function of the landscape architects based on social changes, resulting in the modern public park; the comparison of green typologies to the gears of a machine, alluding to the production of landscape architecture for the mass of population; the formulation of productive landscape, food self-sufficiency and interdependent development of city and countryside; the relationship of green politics with urbanism and the development of the rurban city; the production of housing in new settlements, their respective architecture and relationship with the garden. It is concluded that Migge intended to resolve main issues of his time by working across many disciplinary fields. We are interested in the discussion disputes fought over other world projects involving the countryside and the city. It is expected to contribute to the history of landscape architecture within the history of built spaces, which includes architecture, urbanism and landscape.

The discussion surrounding the impact of territorial cohesion policy, and the territorial prioritiza-tion of cohesion policy, can offer significant insights by problematizing spatial justice. The notions of territo-riality, mobility and peripherality are presented and analyzed due to their relevance to territorial cohesion, but also because they may strengthen the concept of spatial justice. The main objective of this paper, and by extension of this issue, is to stress the relevance of spatial justice as a concept created to address socio-spatial and territorial inequalities and useful when framing policy strategies, articulating policy goals, implementing policies, or taking actions to mitigate socio-spatial inequalities. The paper is organized in four sections. The introductory section presents social and economic inequalities as signifiers of the (un)sustainability of the European project and stresses the challenges facing territorial cohesion policy. The second section includes a conceptualization of spatial justice which plays to both the analytical strength and normative rigour of the concept. Third, there is a brief discussion of the notions of territoriality, mobility and peripherality. The final section is dedicated to a description of the basic features of the six papers included in this issue.

The city of Cork, built in a hollow between the surrounding hills and at the head of a safe harbour, has grown upwards and outwards since the mid-eighteenth century, driven by its advantageous position and the enterprise of its merchant... more

- by Maura Cronin
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- Urban Studies, Merchants, Rural Urban Relations, Cork (Ireland) History
- by Bilge Özel
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- Geography, Resilience, Urban And Regional Planning, Urban Agriculture

Abstract Globalisation has introduced new sources of mobility for India's youth, yet not all youth experience mobility in the same way. The unevenness of mobility trajectories is especially visible in regional towns, where poor rural migrants and more globally connected middle-class youth occupy the same social space. To illustrate these mobility trends, this paper presents the stories of youths from various backgrounds in the town of Darjeeling, exploring different sources of mobility for rural and urban youth. While rural youth experience some forms of upward mobility as they migrate into the town, urban youth are confronted with downward mobility and are frustrated in their aspirations for professional careers and ‘modern’ lifestyles. For aspiring urban youth, upwardly-mobile rural people are seen as a threat to their privilege, blocking their mobility aspirations. This is contributing towards emerging tensions between rural and urban populations within the town.

- by Trent Brown
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- Sociology, Youth Studies, Mobility/Mobilities, South Asian Studies

Over the last decades, rural areas of the Ecuadorian Andes have undergone deep transformations in a liberal economic context synonymous with a weakening of family farming. Therefore, in some areas, particularly in the province of Azuay, peasant migration has increased a lot and has caused important agrarian transformations. On the one hand, cultivated and forested areas have decrased while on the other hand grazed areas have increased. Beyond the obvious loss of agro-biodiversity, which is now forcing farming families to buy their own food, the migratory context is also inducing major environmental degradations which
are now endangering the smallest farms’ activity. Thus, peasant emigration, instead of increasing rural development rather seems to exacerbate the economic and environmental vulnerability of family farmers. In view of this alarming situation, this text, which presents the results of a research conducted in 2014, also insists on the necessity to rethink the development of the rural territories with a redefinition of urban-rural linkages.

- by Nasser Rebaï
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- Geography, Environmental Studies, Rural History, Rural Development

Usme is a village and former municipality in the south of Bogotá. Urbanisation has transformed the social and spatial structure of the village deeply. Agrarian production and distribution has been affected strongly by the global trend of industrialisation of agriculture and changing agents in the field during the second half of the twentieth century, while at the same time a significant share of the area of the former municipality turned urban. Both processes are analysed in a parallel way with a focus on overlooked existing and changing relations and potentials of food cycles between rural and urban inhabitants and challenges regarding production and distribution of agrarian goods. The problems and solutions of food flows could represent alternative benchmarks for the sustainable future of the urban expansion area between the rural and the urban part of Usme. This analysis is developed in the framework of my PhD Thesis.

- by Alissa Diesch
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- Polycentric Urban Regions, Megacities, Urban Growth, Rural Urban Relations

Our research brings to light features of the social world that impact moral judgments and how they do so. The moral vignette data presented were collected in rural and urban Croatian communities that were involved to varying degrees in the Croatian Homeland War. We argue that rapid shifts in moral accommodations during periods of violent social strife can be explained by considering the role that coordination and social agents' ability to reconfigure their social network (i.e., relational mobility) play in moral reasoning. Social agents coordinate on (moral) norms, a general attitude which broadly facilitates cooperation, and makes possible the collective enforcement of compliance. During social strife interested parties recalibrate their determination of others' moral standing and recast their established moral circle, in accordance with their new or prevailing social investments. To that extent, social coordination-and its particular promoters, inhibitors, and determinants-effects significant changes in individuals' ranking of moral priorities. Results indicate that rural participants evaluate the harmful actions of third parties more harshly than urban participants. Coordination mediates that relationship between social environment and moral judgment. Coordination also matters more for the moral evaluation of the harmful actions of moral scenarios involving characters belonging to different social units than for scenarios involving characters belonging to the same group. Participants high in relational mobility-that ability to recompose one's social network-moralize similarly wrongdoings perpetrated by both in-and out-group members. Those low in relational mobility differentiate when an out-group member causes the harm. Additionally, perceptions of third-party guilt are also affected by specifics of the social environment. Overall, we find that social coordination and relational mobility affect moral reasoning more so than ethnic commitment.

ABSTRACT The burden of vision impairment due to uncorrected refractive error (needing spectacles) in Mozambique is known to be significant. To improve the planning and provision of eye health services, a better understanding of how vision is valued by patients is needed. The willingness to pay (WTP) for improved vision through correcting refractive error was investigated in Nampula, Mozambique, using stated choice and bidding game methodologies. The mean WTP values were found to be 388.92 Meticals (US$13) for stated choice and 469.89 Meticals (US$16) for the bidding game. The mean WTP values for rural dwellers were found to be lower than responses from those living in urban areas. If avoidable vision impairment is to be addressed in Mozambique, the cost of services must not be a barrier and the construction of a sustainable spectacle system that delivers for both rural and urban patients must be a priority.

- by Kovin Naidoo
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- Optometry, Development Economics, Development Studies, International Development