Urban Dichotomy Research Articles

Analysis Of Microeconomic Theory According To Abu Ubayd And Al-Syaibani And Its Relevance To Pancasila Economy

This study aims to analyze the microeconomic theory of Abu Ubayd in the book Al-Amwal and Al-Syaibani in the book al-Kasb and its relevance to the Pancasila economy. The research method used is a qualitative method with an analytical descriptive approach to the book of Al-Awal by Abu Ubayd and the book of Al-Kasb by Al-Syaibani and assisted from other reading sources related to the research title. Theresults of this study are Abu Ubayd in al-Amwal talks about basic human needs, legal and economic justice, Bedouin and urban dichotomy, while al-Syaibani explores the concept of al-Kasb (Work), according to him that work is the main element of production, has a very important position in life. Al-Syaibani also explained about wealth and destitution, the classification of businesses and about economic needs and specialization and distribution of work. The relevance of Abu Ubayd's economic thought with Pancasila Economy in accordance with the Indonesian Law No. 5 Year 1999 on the prohibition of monopolistic practices. While Al-Syaibani about al-Kasb (work) and the distribution of work is very relevant to the 1945 Constitution article 28 D Paragraph 2, namely Everyone has the right to work and get a fair and decent reward and treatment in labor relations.

Stray urbanism: stray donkeys and place-identity in Makhanda, South Africa

The presence of free-roaming livestock in cities is often seen as something that should be regulated, and zoning practices across the world generally attempt to restrict their presence or ensure their absence in urban areas. Apart from the health and safety reasoning behind such regulations, there is also a juxtaposition inherent within the presence of livestock in urban areas. This juxtaposition relates to the rural–urban dichotomy which presupposes that the presence of livestock is a rural characteristic and not an urban one. The present research challenges this dichotomy with the case study of Makhanda, South Africa. It utilises southern Urbanism and the contribution of donkeys to the place-identity of the city to frame this discussion. This paper used an online survey with residents of the city as well as key informant interviews to understand the layers of meaning that exist within local opinions on stray donkeys. It found that donkeys were seen by many as integral to the character or place-identity of the city. They were seen as both positive and negative symbols of the city – illustrating the juxtapositions within urban settlements and urbanism in southern cities. In this way, the case study reiterates the call from southern scholars to contextualise, reconceptualise and reframe urban theory so that is responsive to southern environments and experiences.

Planetary rural geographies: Towards a research agenda

This author reply responds to the commentaries on our article, ‘Planetary rural geographies’, exploring intersections with neo-Marxist political economy, post-colonialism, and digital geographies. The critiques raise questions about the portrayal of rural spaces as sources of planetary crises. We emphasize the intention of the planetary rural geographies framework to avoid a simplistic rural – urban dichotomy and argue for a nuanced understanding of planetary crises. Our response delves into the role of agency in a neoliberal capitalist context, incorporating post-humanist perspectives. It also examines the complex relationship between rural populism, conflicts, and planetary crises. Planetary rural geographies seek to integrate diverse perspectives as a research agenda, acknowledging the need for empirical tools to translate theoretical insights into meaningful interventions for just, equitable transitions.

Wage Differentials and Inequality in Managerial and Professional Jobs: Quantile Regression Analysis

In the economics literature, it is vividly portrayed that there is a great deal of disparity in wages received by workers across economic activities and occupations in India. The primary purpose of this article is to identify factors determining wage differentials and to measure wage inequality in managerial and professional occupations. Using unit-level records of periodic labour force survey (PLFS) published by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), we apply quantile regression model to examine how wage distribution is determined by personal, household and labour market characteristics. Our analysis is limited to persons aged between 15 and 65 and employed in managerial and professional occupations. The findings suggest that rural–urban dichotomy, gender, technical education, social group, job contract, type of enterprise and enterprise workforce size are statistically significant across quantiles and are important in explaining the wage distribution of managerial and professional workers in India. From a policy perspective, the invigoration of gender-based measures coupled with the expansion of technical education and labour market institutions are essential for bridging the wage disparity in India. JEL Classifications: J16, J24, J31

Phantasmal ruralism: A terror of folk ecology in Washington Irving’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’

This article considers Washington Irving’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ as a work of nineteenth-century American folk horror for how the story’s depiction of nature suggests provincial people as an especially fearful collective entity. With additional consideration of Tim Burton’s film adaptation, Sleepy Hollow (1999), this article provides an ecocritical analysis of the tale’s landscapes and objects to assert that supernatural belief is manufactured partly by the idea of rural existence as physically and culturally separate from urban areas. Moreover, the article illustrates how reading the story’s phantasmal terrors as sourced by environmental catalysts can diminish hierarchies that are rooted in rural and urban dichotomies.

Who Is Restoring Forest Landscapes? Analysis of Citizen Participation within the De-Eucalyptising Brigades in Galicia, Spain

The expansion of eucalypt plantations constitutes a growing source of landscape transformation in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. In this context, forest planning has failed to design forestry policies that consider the demands of the population as a whole. Among other consequences, in 2018 a group of activists founded a volunteer programme aiming at collective action against the expansion of degraded forests. By 2022, over 100 actions had been performed, mostly involving eradications of eucalypt sprouts, and 1000 activists took part in such programmes. Through participatory action research, this work explores the nature and functioning of this programme and discusses in particular the socialisation of landscape management. The results reveal a slight prevalence of an urban public participating in rural areas, so that activism against eucalyptus expansion conforms a centripetal force in the creation of new networks of actors that transcend the rural–urban dichotomy. It is concluded that the studied case can be taken as a model for public institutions aiming to reinforce citizen participation in forest landscape plans.

Elements of Divergence in Urbanization between Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Core of the Continent

There is an ongoing debate regarding whether the EU-10 converges at the core of Europe or not. Although the evidence supports both perspectives, the gap in urbanization is undeniable. In this explorative study, two economic processes contributing to this disparity—foreign direct investment and migration—were analyzed and contextualized with respect to urbanization using grounded theory. It was concluded that there is slight convergence in the frontier, usually in urbanized areas of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), but not in the rural areas; additionally, the rural–urban dichotomy within the CEE countries is deepening due to the self-enhancing nature of the analyzed processes.

The Influence of Frames of Reference in Understanding Covid-19 in Zimbabwe

The study unpacks some of the frames of reference that people use to explain and understand Covid-19 in Zimbabwe. The study used a qualitative research approach to explore participants’ frames of reference. A phenomenological research design was adopted. Purposive sampling was used to select research participants, whilst two online focus group discussions were held. Data were collected through the use of semi-structured interview questions, which were administered online. The study revealed five salient themes as frames of reference, each with its own sub-themes. These are religion, politics, race, the rural–urban dichotomy, and age. The study concluded that people use their frames of reference to understand pandemics. Certain myths about Covid-19 emanate from people's frames of reference, without any scientific basis. It was also noted that frames of reference give rise to the construction and perpetuation of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. It is recommended that stakeholders take a systematic and integrated approach which appeals to all people's frames of reference when disseminating information.

A Sustainable Everyday Life for Counterurbanising Swedish Families

Even though urbanisation is the prevailing trend in modern societies, the net migration balance of Sweden’s largest cities has been negative for the past few years, and overrepresented among these migrants are families with young children. The stories of counterurbanisation have often relied on rather stereotypical representations of unsustainable city life versus sustainable rural life, thus strengthening the much criticised rural–urban binary. The aim of this article is to explore how the counterurbanising families’ ideas of “a sustainable everyday life” developed during and after the migration event. We uncover the needs, ideological foundations, practices, capacities, social atmosphere, temporality, and place-based understanding of one’s own role and responsibilities in society by studying what the families do in their everyday lives, what they are striving to achieve, and how they understand sustainability. Counterurbanising families represent a driven group that are not primarily guided by economic wants—as many of their active choices are lifestyle-driven. Our theoretical foundation highlights the structures and dimensions of social sustainability, relational place, and learning, contrasted with the subjectivity of everyday life in the urban–rural transition. Forty-five in-depth interviews (1–2 h) were conducted via video conference software, and the material was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that the views and understandings of social sustainability among counterurbanising young families highlight place-based needs and conditions, with implications for sustainability and mobility research, individuals, and contemporary society as a whole in navigating the somewhat diminishing rural–urban dichotomy.

Performing musical personae. Verka Serduchka and Slawomir as examples of critical dance music

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to compare two artists – the Ukrainian Verka Serduchka and the Polish Sławomir – by analysing their most representative songs. The visual (music videos), sonic (genre), and lyrical factors of their performances are viewed as the elements of their musical personae (as understood by Philip Auslander). Verka and Sławomir are presented as folk-rooted but socially elevated stars who tend to mock political (auto)stereotypes through the lens of a rural–urban dichotomy. They both represent a specific local kind of “dance music,” that is a field where political discourse, strongly rooted in folk inspiration, is constructed, reproduced, and sustained. The objective is to disclose how they perform the mockery of classical values based on the themes of folk culture, stardom, and love, through their comedic personae.

Rural-urban dimensions of the perception of malaria severity and practice of malaria preventive measures: insight from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey.

Morbidities and mortalities caused by malaria are still a serious issue in Nigeria, with the country accounting for 25% of malaria morbidities and 24% of malaria mortalities globally in 2018. Treated bed nets reduce the incidence of malaria, but not all Nigerians use them. This study aimed to examine the factors associated with treated bed net usage, including perceived severity of malaria, and the rural-urbandifferences in the relationship between socio-demographic factors and use of treated bed nets in Nigeria. The analytic sample size comprised 40,693 women aged 15-49 years. Poisson regression and bivariable and multivariable analyses were used to test the study hypothesis thatwomen who agreed that malaria could potentially lead to death would be more likely to adopt malaria preventive measures, including treated bed net use. About 48% of the women slept under a treated mosquito net the night before the survey. Those who perceived that malaria could lead to death had a higher likelihood of using a treated bed net in the urban, ruraland combined samples. However, in the multivariable model, the association between perceived malaria severity and use of a treated bed net was only significant for rural women (APR=0.964, 95% CI: 0.933, 0.996). The results unexpectedly suggest that rural Nigerian women who perceive malaria to be severe have a lower likelihood of using treated bed nets. Also, rural-urban variations in the relationship between the socio-demographic variables and use of treated bed nets were observed. Policies should consider the observed rural-urban dichotomy in the influence of perceived severity of malaria and other socio-demographic factors on women's use of treated bed nets in Nigeria.

Rural China under the COVID‐19 pandemic: Differentiated impacts, rural–urban inequality and agro‐industrialization

AbstractWe use field data collected in a village in northern China to examine the impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on rural economy and livelihoods. The lockdown effectively protected the village from the pandemic, resulting in zero infection. The economic impacts were mostly negative but differentiated across economic sectors and livelihood strategies; some gained from the business opportunities arising from the pandemic. Wage loss for migrant workers was the most common negative impact but lasted less than 2 months. Overall, rural China has escaped the worst impacts of the pandemic found in other developing countries. We argue that the structure of inequalities in today's China, now primarily based on market differentiations, has become far more complex than the simplistic rural–urban dichotomy based on the household registration (hukou) status can possibly explain. Rather than exacerbating the hukou‐based rural–urban inequality, the true impacts of the pandemic on rural China are more likely to result from the reforms of the agri‐food system. The suspected link between the new pathogen and the food system has created a misinformed urgency for the government to accelerate the industrialization of the food system, which we think can backfire and increase the likelihood of the next outbreak.

On Context and Second Language Acquisition: The Rural Urban Dichotomy in Cameroon

The complexity of the linguistic environment in Cameroon raises the question of context and its role in the acquisition of another language. This paper draws a dichotomy between learners in such contexts considered rural and those regarded as urban or cosmopolitan2. Using the irregular verb as a yardstick, an evaluation of the acquisition of irregular verb patterns by 80 final year primary school learners from 2contexts in the Northwest Region of Cameroon was done. Oral and written tests were administered to check learners’ acquisition of verb inflectional categories, verb tenses and general written and oral productions. The findings reveal similar trends in the acquisition of inflectional categories and verb tenses by learners in both contexts and divergent trends in general oral and written productions. For instance, learners in both contexts had similar challenges using the Vs, Ved and Ven inflections with a very low average frequency of 26% and with a high frequency of 67.2 % for the Ving and Vo inflections. Though learners in the urban centres had higher degrees of efficiency in oral productions, their counterparts in the rural areas had more challenges in verbal as against written productions. The paper concludes that second language acquisition is not a consequence of a unilateral context but a result of a plethora of other factors both within and without the learning environment with evident pedagogic implications for stakeholders in the second language acquisition industry.

Neighborhood Effects on the Health of Chinese Older Adults: Beyond the Rural and Urban Dichotomy.

The associations between physical frailty and depressive symptoms among older individuals were established in the existing literature. Taking the person-environment perspective, we argue that neighborhood environment could either buffer the stress derived from being physically vulnerable or worsen it by adding another layer of stressors in the environmental context when physical health declined. The objectives of this study were to explore to what extent the neighborhood-level characteristics moderate the relationship between physical frailty and depressive symptoms. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2011 wave, 6,245 individuals aged 60 years and older were included for analyses. Multilevel mixed-effects models were fitted to examine the moderating effects of urbanicity and neighborhood-level socioeconomic status (SES) on the relationship between frailty and depressive symptoms among older adults, controlling for individual-level characteristics. Results showed a stronger relationship between deterioration in physical health and depressive symptoms in rural neighborhoods and neighborhoods with lower SES, after controlling for individual-level SES. Also, the moderating effects of the neighborhood-level socioeconomic factors remained after controlling for urbanicity, indicating that neighborhood SES works beyond the rural-urban contexts. Findings from this study demonstrate the important roles of neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics in reshaping, and the need to redefine, China's rural-urban dichotomy. The findings also identified neighborhoods with low SES as potential targets for policy and practice to reduce the stress associated with health decline.

Spatial Analysis of the Rural-Urban Structure of the Spanish Municipalities

The rural–urban dichotomy is one of the most debated topics by the scientific community in territorial issues. In addition, many public entities and scientific studies have established the distinctive elements of rural and urban spaces by relating the decline of the rural ones with factors such as aging, low birthrate, the primary sector, unemployment, or poverty, among others. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to spatially study the current model of territorial organization of Spanish urban and rural municipalities as well as their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. To this end, GIS (Geographic Information System) tools were used to carry out a spatial autocorrelation (SA) analysis and to identify homogeneous groups of the variables considered. In conclusion, there are different demographic and socioeconomic realities in Spain, an urban one located on the coast with a positive situation and, on the other hand, a regressive reality composed of rural municipalities, among which there are villages whose situation is worrying, mainly located in the north of Spain.

Which families move out from metropolitan areas? Counterurban migration and professions in Sweden

This paper seeks to contribute to the ongoing revitalisation of the counterurbanisation research within population geography by nuancing counterurban migration beyond the rural–urban dichotomy, including all moves downwards in the urban hierarchy. The focus is to explore counterurban migration patterns among families with children leaving Swedish metropolitan areas, and whether some groups of skilled professions are more likely to make a counterurban move than others. Using register data on all families moving out from metropolitan areas in Sweden during the period 2003–2013, we found a small but steady outflow of families, mainly to medium-sized or small towns. The highly educated are overrepresented among these families, thus providing potential for an inflow of competence to the receiving areas. Contrary to expected, the assumed flexibility in time and space among knowledge sector professionals does not seem to enable them more than others to pursue counterurban moves. Instead, public sector professionals characterise families making a counterurban move to all destination regions, while men with a profession within arts and crafts to a higher extent move with their family to more rural areas.

From invisible to visible: Kwai and the hierarchical cultural order of China’s cyberspace

Contemporary China owns over 750 million Internet users, and a short-video-sharing app named Kwai has over 600 million users. From 2016 to 2017, when Kwai emerged as the largest short-video-sharing app and the fourth largest social media app in China, its major competitor Dou Yin was just released, and no other similar app could post a serious threat to Kwai. However, the emergence of Kwai to the mainstream public was tightly intertwined with a media discourse that established Kwai as a representation of rural China and low culture. Words like “vulgar,” “low,” “absurd,” and so forth were constantly used to describe Kwai and its users, and Kwai embodied a representativeness of rural and low culture that carries a taken-for-granted characteristic. This article unpacks Kwai’s controversial emergence and examines the power relations and cultural dynamics that were at play when Kwai was established by the mainstream media discourse a rural and culturally low. It interrogates the media discourse that constructs a regime of representation of Kwai, as well as how it contributes to the establishment of a regime of truth about Kwai, rural China, and rural Chinese. I unearth the seemingly natural condition of this representativeness and argue that Kwai’s controversial emergence from 2016 to 2017 signifies China’s rural–urban dichotomy, as well as a dominance of urban culture. I also indicate that we see a flow of this cultural dynamic from the physical world to the cyberspace, where the urban culture exercises the power to define and marginalize the rural.

Determinants of growth in non-municipal areas of Delhi: rural–urban dichotomy revisited

The current discourse on urbanization calls for new approaches to capture the peculiarities of growth in the global South. This paper takes the National Capital Territory of Delhi as a case study and adopts a mix of methods (field survey, ordinary least squares regression and geographically weighted regression) to highlight the emerging gradient of urbanization within official rural areas. The results show a certain catching-up effect in which the settlements with low population and employment rate grow faster than more urbanized settlements. Settlements with low basic infrastructure provision (such as schools and medical facilities), which are mainly census towns, tend to grow more slowly than villages with better infrastructure provision. Additionally, local characteristics of growth vary spatially depending on the distribution of socio-economic, demographic, and infrastructure variables. To avoid the unplanned transformation of villages into urban areas in Delhi and similar regions of the global South, this paper recommends moving from master planning towards strategic spatial planning, implementing integrated planning and governance of non-municipal peri-urban areas, and reforming spatial plans and development policies based on scientific methods.

Recognition of Rural-Urban Linkage Throughunderstanding the Potential Impact of Growth Center: A Case Study of Paragram Hut, Nawabganj, Dhaka

The growth center enhances the linkages between rural and urban area through providing opportunities and scopes for both areas as well as by promoting facilities for agriculture, fishery, livestock etc. by ensuring market accessibility and socioeconomic interactions among rural and urban people in context of the exchange of goods, ideas, information and facilities of different markets. The growth center plays the role of transaction point between urban and rural area and thus help to reform the economy of both areas and bring changes in financial and fiscal policy and macro transformation as well as the transformations in agriculture and livelihood diversification. It has become the channel to replace the rural urban dichotomy in rural urban continuum. Therefore the paper tries to find out the existing nature and pattern of the linkage by investigating the potential impacts of growth centres. It also reveals the way how agricultural transformation is taking place in response to changing urban market demand and vice versa. It focuses on the input and output side scenario in rural and urban economy and finds out the flow pattern and the contribution of the communication sector on it. It also tries to find the interrelation between rural-urban linkage and the influence of growth centre on linkage by identifying the stimulus such as infrastructure development, complementary investment, and NGO investments occurred in growth centres and the surrounding area. The study finally provides some arena of potentialities for further improvement of rural-urban linkage through more efficient policies.

Multi‐sited Himalayan households and the misleading rural–urban dichotomy

The dichotomous differentiation of people into rural and urban is necessary for the purpose of enumeration, but it is important to acknowledge that the outcome of censuses is shaped by the analytic categories that are applied. Squeezing a complex and fuzzy reality into narrow analytic categories gives a simplified picture of reality that hardly reflects actual events and processes on the micro level. Defining Himalayan rural households as multi‐sited economic units is more in touch with householders’ own perceptions and practices than dividing them into urban and rural units. Urbanisation rates derived from census data may be coherent with the assumption that households are units of domicile, but they do not reflect undercurrents of ongoing settlement processes in a valid manner. The term translocis encompasses all localities where households are active. It softens the stiff dichotomy of rural–urban by directing attention to the ways in which multiple sites and sectors are interwoven in the activities of the world's most basic economic unit – the household.