Urban-rural Interaction Research Articles

Rural–urban spatial interaction in the global south: long‐distance mobility changes, desires and restrictions over two decades in rural philippines

.The spatial interaction between rural and urban areas is intense in the Global South. While research into how this interaction influences livelihood opportunities is extensive, longitudinal identification and analysis of rural people's long‐distance mobility is rudimentary. This is problematic given the possible repercussions of a greater flow of people for transport system management (congestion, emissions, investments, social exclusion, etc.). Based on longitudinal survey data from 1990 to 2008/2009, this article addresses this gap by exploring how the long‐distance mobility behaviour of households and individuals has changed over a period of intensified rural–urban interaction in a rural Philippine area. The article furthermore addresses the individuals' mobility desires and restrictions related to long‐distance travel. The results indicate that both accessibility effects and effects related to information and communication technology (ICT), concentration of activities and opportunities towards major cities, age, labour market, and economic situation. Over time, particularly since improved accessibility conditions have enabled much faster travelling, more people have come to travel more frequently (although a suppressed demand is still present and inequalities are considerable) to more distant destinations, major cities in particular, for mainly social motives. A recent countertrend is evident, partly arising from mobile phones replacing physical movement. The increase in private vehicle ownership has so far been slow, so modal choice is still highly sustainable. Overall, the findings support core ideas derived from the new economic geography, but also notes, with earlier studies in transport geography, that travel time is a prime consideration.

Urban–rural interaction patterns and dynamic land use: implications for urban–rural integration in China

Working within the context of enlarged urban-rural inequalities in China, this paper aims to identify different urban-rural interaction patterns and to propose specific ways of achieving urban-rura ...

Rural-Urban Interactions: Potential or Constraint to Rural Development? Lessons from Western Bagamoyo District, Tanzania

This paper discusses the contribution of rural-urban interaction to rural development in western Bagamoyo, Tanzania, based on a study that was conducted in 2009. A sample of 232 households was drawn from five villages that have good transport linkage to Dar es Salaam and other intermediate towns. The study area has a long history of rural-urban interactions (RUIs). However, the potentials of RUIs are not realised due to the relatively marginal position of rural-urban migrants from the area that compels them to access low paying occupations in towns, and consequently limits their contribution despite having strong ties with their rural homes. The majority of migrants have very little to offer for rural development due to their low incomes in town. However, there are cases of successful migrants who have the potential to contribute to rural development through their own investment and influence. These should be targeted for collaboration with local communities. Whereas RUIs facilitate access to rural resources by urban dwellers, the rural to urban flow of resources often has limited benefits to rural communities due to weaknesses in valuation, taxation and allocation of revenues collected to local communities. In order to benefit from RUIs, policy and development planning should ensure the protection of interests of rural communities, as well as promote economic opportunities for rural-urban migrants.

Can the principle of self-organized gradients be applied for human systems? a case study on rural-urban interactions

The ecological gradient approach states that self-organized processes produce patterns of concentration profi les that can be distinguished into structural and functional gradients. Throughout the undisturbed development of such systems, certain attributes are regularly optimized. These ‘orientors’ can be used to characterize the state of open systems. H. Bossel has introduced a set of ‘basic orientors’, which can be applied as indicators and target functions of any self-organized system. In this paper we combine the gradient approach with the basic orientor concept to test if the principles of self-organization can also be used to describe human entities. The case studies utilized are representing several concentration profi les between urban and rural landscapes in Europe. These spatial gradients, which have been arising from long-term development of cities and their hinterlands, are assigned to the basic orientors’ existence, effectiveness, freedom of action, security, adaptability, and coexistence. The results show that in all cases the demanded patterns can be found, thus there are functional parallels between self-organizing processes in ecological and human systems. The basic orientor approach can be used to explain these patterns, i.e. to clarify the utility of the outcome of self-organized processes in nature and society.

From Crops to Concrete: Urbanization, Deagriculturalization, and Construction Material Mining in Central Mexico

In tropical countries, urbanization and rural deagriculturalization are intimately linked processes. Growth of the construction industry, which draws labor and materials from rural and periurban areas, is a key component of rural–urban interactions. Using a case study from the Perote Valley, Mexico, this article analyzes how urban-driven concrete aggregate mining affects rural agricultural lands and livelihoods. Land-cover changes associated with aggregate surface mining were examined by comparing aerial photographs, satellite images, and Global Positioning System field maps of the valley. In addition, sixty-six formal household interviews were conducted in three agrarian communities. Results indicate that between 1995 and 2006, mine surface area quadrupled, from 181 to 706 hectares, and the spatial distribution of surface mines followed a predictable pattern of extraction, from most to least accessible. Numerous factors persuaded farmers to convert fields to mines, including increased prices for aggregates, consumerist desires for new homes, and declining returns to agriculture. Moreover, farmers believed they could or would recultivate mined land following extraction. Yet, in 2006, among the three agrarian communities, 202 (45 percent) of the 482 hectares of agricultural land extracted were not recultivated. Although deep mines were more likely to be abandoned, findings suggest that land revalorization occurred among farmers, with the scarcity value of nonrenewable aggregates gradually surpassing the land's agricultural value. In the long term, diminished agricultural potential resulting from widespread mine abandonment might drive farmers to migrate to cities for employment, creating a positive feedback between urban demand for construction aggregates and mining of agricultural fields.

Social organization and change in the Indus Civilization; phytolith analysis of crop processing aims at Masudpur VII

The Indus Civilization (3rd to 2nd millennium BC) has been understood primarily through the study of its cities. However, the majority of the population lived in rural villages whose material remains have not been the focus of archaeological research. There has been no consensus on the nature of the social organization of the Indus Civilization, and the focus on urban sites and elite artefacts has meant that there has been little investigation into urban–rural interactions or the impact of urbanization on rural hinterlands. Food production, particularly that of staple crops, is one of the key links between a city and the villages that surround it. This paper uses phytolith analysis, a method of identifying plants and their constituent components using microscopic plant silica, to explore if the development of the cities affected the daily practice of crop processing and exchange in the Indus Civilization. This helps to ascertain whether city-centralized models of social organization can be applied to all aspects of rural–urban interactions. Using samples from Early and Mature Harappan periods at the village site of Masudpur VII in Haryana, India, the aims of crop processing, the crop assemblage and the local environmental conditions have been explored. This study concludes that contrary to the assumed city-focused models, the aims of the processing, composition of the crop assemblage and the local environmental conditions at Masudpur VII were not altered by the development of the city of Rakhigarhi in close proximity to it. This paper demonstrates that an understanding of ancient civilizations cannot be accurately drawn from the study of only their most conspicuous sites, especially when most of the people lived in the rural hinterlands.

Spatial interaction creates period-doubling bifurcation and chaos of urbanization

This paper provides a new way of looking at complicated dynamics of simple mathematical models. The complicated behavior of simple equations is one of the headstreams of chaos theory. However, a recent study based on dynamical equations of urbanization shows that there are still some undiscovered secrets behind the simple mathematical models such as logistic equation. The rural–urban interaction model can also display varied kinds of complicated dynamics, including period-doubling bifurcation and chaos. The two-dimension map of urbanization presents the same dynamics as that from the one-dimension logistic map. In theory, the logistic equation can be derived from the two-population interaction model. This seems to suggest that the complicated behavior of simple models results from interaction rather than pure intrinsic randomicity. In light of this idea, the classical predator–prey interaction model can be revised to explain the complex dynamics of logistic equation in physical and social sciences.

People On the Move: Rural-Urban Interactions in Sarawak - By Ryoji Soda

People On the Move: Rural-Urban Interactions in Sarawak - By Ryoji Soda

Swedish agriculture during the twentieth century in relation to sustainability

This article describes the development processes of Swedish agriculture toward non-sustainability. It asserts that the challenge of agricultural sustainability can be fruitfully addressed within an analytical framework that consciously and explicitly considers agricultural development as consisting of processes of coevolution involving agriculture and the surrounding ecological and socioeconomic systems. When this framework and certain derived indicators for agricultural sustainability are applied to Swedish agricultural development during the twentieth century, the following conclusions are reached. First, the new system of traditional agriculture that had emerged towards the end of nineteenth century in relation to various interactive forces within the socioeconomic system was associated with strengthening rural–urban interaction and interconnectedness. The system was substantially improved during the first quarter of the twentieth century, becoming capable of producing a sufficient supply of food within rural–urban sphere. Second, Swedish agriculture was transformed during the second and third quarters into a modern industrial system characterized by weakening local coevolutionary processes and by various agro-ecological problems. Resource flows uncoupled from the surrounding ecological and socioeconomic systems and food consumption uncoupled from local food production. Third, agricultural sustainability was generally high and improving during the first quarter of the twentieth century, deteriorating during the second and third quarters, and low but improving during the fourth. Finally, attaining sustainable agriculture will likely entail the strengthening of coevolutionary processes at the municipality level.

Ryoji Soda: People on the Move: Rural-Urban Interactions in Sarawak

Ryoji Soda: People on the Move: Rural-Urban Interactions in Sarawak

Using home buyers’ revealed preferences to define the urban–rural fringe

The location of new homes defines the urban–rural fringe and determines many facets of the urban–rural interaction set in motion by construction of new homes in previously rural areas. Home, neighborhood and school district characteristics play a crucial role in determining the spatial location of new residential construction, which in turn defines the boundary and spatial extent of the urban–rural fringe. We develop and apply a spatial hedonic variant of the Blinder (J Hum Resour 8:436–455, 1973) and Oaxaca (Int Econ Rev 9:693–709, 1973) price decomposition to newer versus older home sales in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area during the year 2000. The preferences of buyers of newer homes are compared to those who purchased the nearest neighboring older home located in the same census block group, during the same year. Use of the nearest older home purchased in the same location represents a methodology to control for various neighborhood, social–economic-demographic and school district characteristics that influence home prices. Since newer homes reflect current preferences for home characteristics while older homes reflect past preferences for these characteristics, we use the price differentials between newer and older home sales in the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition to assess the relative significance of various house characteristics to home buyers.

Modelling community interactions and social capital dynamics: The case of regional and rural communities of Australia

Tension between dominant urban political and economic centres and associated rural communities continues despite various programs to decentralisation. This phenomenon is often explained in terms of a core-periphery political economy. To generate complementary explanatory hypotheses from a social perspective, we examine the impacts of rural–urban community interactions on the development of social norms such as the strength of mutual cooperation. We explore this using deliberately abstracted models of the “Iterated Prisoners’ Dilemma” to represent intra- and inter-community interactions, in regionalised and centralised interaction arrangements. We have considered changes in mutual cooperation as an indicator of social capital dynamics. In our model, increasing interaction of rural communities with urban centres increases “non-cooperative” behaviour of members of the small rural communities. Moreover, as the strength of centralisation (the proportion of interaction between each rural community and the urban centre as compared with the interaction among rural communities) increases, cooperative behaviour among the members of smaller rural communities and mutual cooperation with individuals of larger urban centre decreases. Our hypothesis is that interaction with urban centres disrupts norms used in resolving local social dilemmas. If so, this partly explains the dissatisfaction expressed in rural–urban relations, which may be a fundamental emergent property of particular settlement patterns. Understanding these relationships could guide better policies to facilitate rural–urban interactions in the worldwide trend towards regionalism.

The Urban-Rural Nexus

The growth of industries and cities is in many ways dependent on the agricultural sector, and thus indirectly on rural areas. In the past, the agricultural development has accelerated the growth of many cities, while, on the other hand, the growth of cities in various regions had a pervasive impact on agricultural production. Nevertheless, populations in general remained rural in character and were mainly involved in agricultural production until the Industrial Revolution. Since then, not only have the cities changed tremendously, but modernization has also changed agricultural production systems and thus the rural community.In this paper, our aim is to offer new insights into the complex modern interdependency between urban and rural areas resulting from extended urbanization towards the hinterland. We will mainly focus on the developed world and, we attempt to formulate (future) challenges for urban rural interaction resulting from a stylized model of town and hinterland interdependence.JEL Classification: R10, Q10, O18

Impacts of sewage irrigation on heavy metal distribution and contamination in Beijing, China

A potential hazard to Beijing was revealed due to the accumulation trend of heavy metals in agricultural soils with sewage irrigation, which results in metal contamination and human exposure risk. Samples including soils and plants were collected to assess the impacts of sewage irrigation on the irrigated farming area of Beijing. Concentrations of the five elements Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, and Pb were determined in samples to calculate the accumulation factor and to establish a basis for environmental protection and the suitability of sewage irrigation for particular land use in the urban–rural interaction area of Beijing. Using reference values provided by the Beijing Background Research Cooperative Group in the 1970s, the pollution load index (PLI), enrichment factor (EF), and contamination factor (CF) of these metals were calculated. The pollution load indices (sewage irrigation land 3.49) of soils indicated that metal contamination occurred in these sites. The metal enrichment (EF of Cd 1.8, Cr 1.7, Cu 2.3, Zn 2.0, Pb 1.9) and the metal contamination (CF of Cd 2.6, Cr 1.5, Cu 2.0, Zn 1.7, Pb 1.6) showed that the accumulation trend of the five toxic metals increased during the sewage irrigation as compared with the lower reference values than other region in China and world average, and that pollution with Cd, Cu, Zn, and Pb was exacerbated in soils. The distributions of these metals were homogeneous in the irrigation area, but small-scale heterogeneous spatial distribution was observed. Irrigation sources were found to affect heavy metal distributions in soils. It was suggested that heavy metal transfer from soils to plants was a key pathway to human health exposure to metal contamination. However, with the expansion of urban areas in Beijing, soil inhalation and ingestion may become important pathways of human exposure to metal contamination.

"Treasure Nightsoil As If It Were Gold:" Economic and Ecological Links between Urban and Rural Areas in Late Imperial Jiangnan

This article provides a new perspective to understand what I call “agrarian urbanization” by examining how peasants changed urban life in late imperial Jiangnan. 1 The study of urbanization is not only a matter of tallying the increasing size and number of towns, but also gauging the growing impact of urban activities on the whole society. Furthermore, the urban-rural interaction is rarely one-sided, with the rural as the passive recipient of urban influence. Instead, activities in rural society can have formative influence upon urban development. To measure the extent of urbanization in a society, therefore, we should examine not only population sizes in towns and cities, but also the behavior of people outside the urban settlement. Unfortunately, most studies of urbanization neglect this part of the story. 2 The reason for this neglect is not difficult to find. It lies in the character of urban legends about the largely unknown activities of the rural population.

The Application of Multiple Evaluating Methods on the Comprehensive Evaluation of Urban-rural Interaction and Conjunctional Development of China

Abstract Urban-rural interaction and conjunctional development is the effective way of harmonizing urban-rural relationship and promoting urban-rural development. However, there are differences in the level of urban-rural interaction and conjunctional development of China. How to measure and reflect the difference properly is a decision-making foundation for optimizing urban-rural development of different regions. The paper employs multiple methods to evaluate and order the urban-rural interaction and conjunctional development of 31 provinces (municipalities) in China. Kendall's W consistency coefficient is employed to give a consistent test for the evaluation result series, and the results of multiple methods are aggregated as the final evaluation value. The results reflect the level of regional urban-rural interaction and conjunctional development in China.

Migrants and Housing Investments: Theory and Evidence from Nigeria

The dominance of housing may reflect limitations in the menu of investment choices available to migrants in the country of origin. In many developing countries individuals face relatively few savings opportunities where productive assets (such as land farm assets) are associated with high risks and/or low rates of return. Housing investments offer unique advantages in that they are durable highly visible and associated with low risk and monitoring requirements. However there are some important drawbacks associated with housing investments. In particular where resale and rental markets for housing are not well developed migrants housing assets may be relatively illiquid and irreversible. In the next section I provide some background on general patterns of investment behavior among migrants. Here the evidence on housing investments is discussed for a rich set of migrant sending and receiving countries. In Section III I develop the conceptual framework for understanding migrants housing investment decisions. Section IV provides a description of the data sources. Section V outlines the empirical strategy. In Section VI I discuss the empirical findings. Section VII presents conclusions. (excerpt)

"Rural-urban divide or continuum?" : on the consequences of female labour migration to Bangkok for rural-urban interactions in an age of globalisation

Abstract. On the national level of rural-urban interactions in Thailand economic globalisation produces spatial, sectoral and sexual disparities which trigger female labour migration from the periphery to industrial employment in Bangkok and its vicinity. In geographical terms these dynamics establish an economic System (or continuum) between the periphery and the mega-city. On the individual level migrants negotiate shifting identities and social relations. Literally the «traditional daughter» meets the «modern woman». As a result, each migrant produces a distinct pattern of Bangkokperiphery interactions. «Traditional daughters» usually envisage relurn migration and thus maintain vivid rural-urban relations. «Modern women» may cut off the link with the rural in the long run, influenced by marriage, generation differences, and socio-economic crises, such as that of 1997/1998. Most typically, «translocal migrants» view Bangkok as their place of work and Status accumulation yet remain socio-culturally committed to the rural environment. With traditional Thai pragmatism they manage not to feel torn and ultimately shape continuous rural-urban relations. Thus, «in-between» categories increasingly replace stereotypes of «the global» and «the local», «the rural-traditional » and «the urban-modern».

Peopling mountain environments: changing Andean livelihoods in north‐west Argentina1

Structural adjustment and neoliberal policy implementation in Latin America have had dramatic consequences for livelihoods and patterns of natural resource use in mountain regions. Restructuring of the agricultural economy has increased socio‐economic hardship and reduced industrial labour requirements, altering traditional patterns of seasonal migration from these areas. This paper examines the implications of recent economic and political transformation for Andean livelihoods in the mountains of north‐west Argentina. Case study material illustrates the local impacts of such changes on socio‐economic dynamics, patterns of urban–rural interaction, and natural resource use. The research highlights the influence of agro‐industrial restructuring, protected areas creation, and the distribution of social funds in the region. It reveals that local development is constrained and controlled not only by distant policies but also by contemporary local networks of political clientalism. The influence of both distant and proximate factors governing livelihoods and environmental impacts reinforces the value of geographical study in mountain areas, given its acute spatial and scalar awareness. The paper reaffirms the conception of mountain livelihoods as diverse and dynamic, shaped by economic, political, social and cultural factors as well as physical reality, and critiques the economic rationality of resource use assumed by policymakers and economic models.

Construction of urban-rural interaction evaluation model and its application in Shandong Province

Urban-rural development has always been illustrated as the interaction relationship, represented by the free flow of population, commodities, capital and information between urban and rural areas, which, in some sense, guarantee the effective and efficient uses of resources in urban and rural areas. The urban-rural interaction should not be understood as a process of urbanization for rural areas or that of counter-urbanization for metropolis, rather, it is as a process of joint development, represented by the exchange of materials and energy, for the urban and rural areas. The joint development of urban and rural areas depends on the increase of capital investment for infrastructures mainly covering transportation, telecommunication, education, medical facilities and welfare. Since the industrial reformation, convenient telecommunication, transportation has directly accelerated the intercommunications; indirectly boosted the flow of commodities between urban and rural areas, which has significantly affected the urban-rural interaction. Improved education, medical facilities and society welfare infrastructure serving as the foundation for the joint development of urban and rural areas, together with the equal rights and change for villagers or citizens in education and society welfares, guarantees the urban-rural interaction and integration. This paper gives out a comparatively precise definition of urban-rural interaction. Based on the anterior models,the authors construct a new urban-rural interaction model. To be validated, the model is applied in Shandong province, and its result is acceptable. It was made clear that the concerted development of urban and rural areas is a process of regional social-economic development and it's the re-organization of regional urban and rural factors. Essentially speaking, urban-rural interaction is the degree of urban-rural inter-relationship. The construction of urban-rural interaction model will be helpful for the spatial description of urban and rural relationship, the formulation of regional plan and the development of regional urbanization.