Urban-rural Links Research Articles

Urban–rural links in relaunching left-behind places: the case of Portuguese municipalities

Abstract During the last few decades, the gap between the most prosperous metropolitan areas and the rural areas has widened, especially since the 2008 crisis. This gap has been particularly relevant in relation to population and employment. However, the bi-directional links in terms of population and employment between rural places and the most urbanized areas have been partly overlooked by the literature. At the same time, recent studies have brought the plight of “left-behind” areas to the forefront, highlighting rural as well as other types of “left-behind” places as focal points of discontent. In the context of the debate on left-behind areas, and in an attempt to address the decline in population and employment that they are experiencing, this article proposes a strategy based on the spatial interactions among the different types of territories. Specifically, we develop a spatial econometric model capable of testing all interactions among different territorial typologies based on their degree of urbanization. We apply the model to 278 continental municipalities in Portugal during the period 2010–8. The model estimates have implications for understanding the dynamics of territorial interactions in Portugal, highlighting the crucial role of semi-urban municipalities. The results reveal the positive and significant connections between change in employment in semi-urban municipalities and population change in both neighboring rural and urban municipalities. The findings suggest that semi-urban/rural diffusion should be promoted as a policy approach to left-behind rural places in Portugal.

A New Model of a Spatial Structural Map for Re-Building Urban-Rural Links

A New Model of a Spatial Structural Map for Re-Building Urban-Rural Links

“In poverty we will always stay”: history of famine and contemporary politics of social in-distinction in Cape Verde

ABSTRACT Geographically part of West Africa, Cape Verde is a Creole and diasporic nation. This article begins by characterizing contemporary Cape Verde and the connections to the past, integrating history, memory and cultural manifestations. It then probes how Cape Verde developed politically and socioeconomically, paying special attention to urban-rural links and island city dynamics. It studies the situation of Cape Verde as a whole and of people individually to understand Cape Verdeans’ relationship with food and with rurality, along what lines people unite or divide, and to what extent food is susceptible to political opportunism. To answer these related questions, the present article juxtaposes three strands of explanations: the historical and the political; the popular and the nostalgic; and the cultural and the literary. It suggests that Cape Verde is a politically oriented culture that has managed not only to consolidate a common discourse of solidarity, unity, equality and democracy despite material differences but also to reinvent a negative natural heritage for stronger national identity and social relations.

Antigos e novos hábitos na alimentação de famílias agrícolas de Chapecó e região

The paper presents the outcomes of a field research on food practices of selected agricultural families in the region of Chapecó (SC), emphasizing the combination between preservation of old and introduction of new eating habits and their main determinants, in a context of narrow urban-rural links. It also analyzes the degree of diversity of diets and sources of food based on extensive data collection, and interviewed families' perceptions of their food and nutrition security. Among the findings of the research we highlight significant changes in the eating habits of the interviewed agricultural families, high degree of diversity of diets, importance of urban-rural links, especially of intra-family ties in relation to the phenomenon of multi-locational families.Keywords: food practices; eating habits; agricultural families; food and nutrition security.MALUF, Renato Sérgio; ZIMMERMANN, Silvia Aparecida. Antigos e novos hábitos na alimentação de famílias agrícolas de Chapecó e região. Estudos Sociedade e Agricultura, v. 28, n. 1, p. 48-77, fev. 2020.Submitted on November 20, 2019.Accepted on December 16, 2019.

Building Resilience: An Art–Food Hub to Connect Local Communities

Resilience thinking is an appropriate framework when assessing the transitional potential of complex urban systems. The transformation of abandoned spaces into local hubs attracting new and innovative activities and events promotes a socioeconomic renaissance in urban communities, by stimulating adaptation to change, enhancing local resilience and strengthening urban–rural links. Under the conceptual umbrella of resilience thinking, the present study illustrates the outcomes of an integrated program of research-action aimed at urban regeneration in a medium-sized, economically disadvantaged city in Southern Italy (Battipaglia, Campania). The transformation of an abandoned building into an ‘Art–Food Hub’—a multi-purpose and creative cultural space—based on resilience thinking was the specific case analyzed in our study. Appropriate stakeholders were identified and involved in a series of field activities and workshops, with the final objective of informing a comprehensive strategy strengthening awareness to change and capacity building. More specifically, stakeholder involvement was carried out with two aims: first, to make stakeholders active participants in co-designing a Strategic Urban Planning Document for Battipaglia and, second, to evaluate to what extent the proposed initiative contributes to building local resilience. By explicitly considering cross-scale drivers of community resilience, the results of this study show how the concept of resilience can be practically applied to policy formulation and implementation.

The prefigurative power of urban political agroecology: rethinking the urbanisms of agroecological transitions for food system transformation

ABSTRACTIn recent years, urban contexts and urban-rural linkages have become central for scholars and activists engaged in agrarian questions, agroecological transitions and food system transformation. Grassroots experimentations in urban agroecology and farmers’ engagement with urban policies have marked the rise of a new agenda aiming to bridge urban and agrarian movements.Departing from the work of Eric Holt-Gimenez and Annie Shattuck, this paper argues that the way urban-rural links have been conceptualized is occasionally progressive, and that an agroecology-informed food system transformation needs radical approaches. Acknowledging that processes of urbanization are dynamic, driven by specific lifestyles, consumption patterns, and value orientations – producing ongoing suburbanization, land enclosures, farmers displacement and food-knowledge loss – the paper argues that thinking transitions through new rural-urban links is unfit to tackle the evolving nature of these geographies, and reproduces the distinction between consumers and producers, living on either side of what Mindi Schneider and Philip McMichael have described as an epistemic and ecological rift.Building on insights from four case-studies across global north and south, the paper reframes agroecological transitions as a paradigmatic change in biopolitical spatial relations, economic values and planning agency – what we call an ‘agroecological urbanism’. The paper articulates a transformation agenda addressing urban nutrients, peri-urban landuse, community food pedagogies and farmers’ infrastructure.

The Role of Urban-Rural Links in the Formation of the Local Network in the Border Areas (Gomishan; Golestan Province)

The Role of Urban-Rural Links in the Formation of the Local Network in the Border Areas (Gomishan; Golestan Province)

Weathering the Storm: The Impact of the East Asian Crisis on Farm Households in Indonesia and Thailand

This article assesses the impact of the East Asian financial crisis on farm households in two of the region’s most affected countries, Indonesia and Thailand, using detailed householdlevel survey data collected before and after the crisis began. Although the nature of the shocks in the two countries were similar, the impact on farmers’ income (particularly on distribution) was quite different. In Thailand, poor farmers bore the brunt of the crisis, in part because of their greater reliance on the urban economy, than did poor farmers in Indonesia. Urban-rural links are much weaker in Indonesia. Farmers in both countries, particularly those specializing in export crops, benefited from the currency devaluation. Although there is some evidence that the productivity of the smallest landholders declined over the period in question, it is difficult to attribute this directly to the financial crisis. At least in Thailand, a rural credit crunch does not seem to have materialized. Now that the East Asian financial crisis has waned, its impact on two of the region’s most affected countries, Indonesia and Thailand, can be more readily assessed. Agriculture is the major employer in these economies, yet little is known about how farm households weathered the crisis. Hyperbolic news reports notwithstanding, many farmers surely benefited from the exchange rate depreciation. Other effects of the crisis, however, may not have been so sanguine. Overall, one would expect considerable variation in the impact of the crisis within the rural sector. Of particular interest to policymakers, given the implications for the design of safety net programs and balanced rural development, is how the rural poor fared relative to better-off households. This article uses detailed household survey data from Indonesia and Thailand collected before and after the onset of the 1997 financial crisis to explore its effect on farm production and income, especially its differential impact on the poor.

Urban health in developing countries: a review

The last major review of urban health in developing countries was published in 1992. At that time, knowledge was largely limited to crude rural-urban comparisons and some ad hoc studies of low-income urban communities. Most research was done on communicable (infectious) diseases and little was known about the relationship between urban life in developing countries and chronic illness such as mental ill-health, heart disease and cancer. This paper updates knowledge by reviewing recent research on intra-urban health inequalities, urban health-seeking behaviour and the importance of urban-rural links for health. It also presents a new model of urban health that incorporates changes in urban health research and practice.

Food security in Botswana

Food security is discussed, primarily in the sense of the access of households to adequate resources and income. An assessment of government programmes during the drought in the 1980s is made, and data from a survey in Francistown in 1989 are included to show urban-rural links. The food security problem is increasingly becoming an urban issue affecting poor female-headed households in particular. It is suggested, contrary to prevalent government policy, that the drought relief programme should be made permanent for the poor.

Urban management in Kenya

Local government in Kenya describes the history of municipal administration, its current structure, and its revenues and expenditures. It considers in detail the administration of urban services in Nairobi, and its shortfalls and inadequacies. The f inal sections describe the scale and importance of the informal sector, of community organizations and NGOs, urban-rural links, and women in urban management; and notes that conventional urban management gives little attention to these.