Urban-rural Relations Research Articles

The Urban-Rural Interface: Recent Concepts and Changes. The Case of Buenos Aires

Abstract As the city advances on its hinterland, new concepts emerge to highlight the urban-rural relations that take place in the areas where the urban and the rural systems are articulated. This paper takes up different concepts and their characteristics as well as a comprehensive individualization of the Buenos Aires urban-rural interface (UR-I). The paper aims to characterize the UR-I of Buenos Aires through a qualitative methodology. The paper analyses some preliminary discussions that allow us to establish the emergence of new logics of localization and shaping of the industries and logistics centres, large leisure and consumption facilities and the new ways of living, as well as the issue of the productive Buenos Aires UR- I, and invites us to review the territorial processes, the actors and the underlying factors in Buenos Aires.

Rural-Urban Linkages of Dipayal-Silgadhi, Doti Municipality

This paper reports the findings of the study that examined the urban-rural relationship between Dipayal-Silgadhi, Doti Bazaar and the hinterland areas. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used and primary data were collected from a purposive sampling of 40 consumers and 30 service providers through structured questionnaire, field observation, and focus group discussion. Secondary data were collected from district and municipality profiles, journals, and e-resources. The study revealed that the highway connects Dipayal-Silgadhi, Doti with the hills and Tarai districts. It lies at a break-up point between the Tarai and Mountains areas of Sudurpaschim Province. The local traders have increased their functional magnitude with the coordination of Dhangadhi, Aateriya, and Mahendranagar. It provides functional services to the hinterlands of the northern, western, and eastern parts of Silgadhi. The opening of Samuhagad-Uditola, Shantinagar-Dang, Khaptad-Sadak, Kalena-Sadak, and Mallo-Kalena-Sadak has supported to access and expand the business, educational, and medical services in its hinterlands. However, with further extensions of highways, the buffering of hinterlands is shrinking to perform a variety of functions.

Ageing Population and Elderly Care in the Context of Rural-Urban Relations: The Case of Kastamonu and Sinop

Ageing Population and Elderly Care in the Context of Rural-Urban Relations: The Case of Kastamonu and Sinop

Optimization of Rural Governance Structure under the Development of New Agricultural Management Entities

The positive impact of the development of new agricultural business entities and their institutional systems on the optimization of rural governance structures can be examined from various perspectives, including the state, market, rural society, urban-rural relations, and grassroots governance structure in rural communities. The development of these new agricultural business entities has not only redefined but also restructured the power distribution and governance patterns in rural developing countries, markets, and villages. The rural social order has evolved into a ternary mutual structure governance pattern, often referred to as the “state market rural” model. This transformation has prompted adjustments in the national economic and social policy structure and management systems at both macro and micro levels. It has led to the reshaping of power dynamics, benefit distribution, and governance structures in both urban and rural areas, resulting in significant changes to the economic and social fabric of rural regions. Furthermore, the grassroots governance structure in rural society, characterized by “township governance and village governance,” is undergoing continuous development and improvement. This transition is marked by a shift towards a collaborative governance structure that encourages diverse participation. Building upon the aforementioned optimizations, the rural governance structure now exhibits new characteristics. These include a more extensive and diverse range of rural governance mechanisms, increased openness in governance processes, and a heightened synergy among various governance mechanisms. This dynamic evolution reflects a richer, more diverse, and more open approach to rural governance, fostering a stronger collaborative effort in the pursuit of effective governance.

Recognition and Spatial Distribution of Rural Buildings in Vietnam

The research on the distribution of rural buildings is one of the fundamental works of urban–rural development in Vietnam. Adopting a Mask R-CNN deep learning framework and collecting sub-meter remote sensing images, this research used a remote sensing interpretation model of rural buildings trained based on East Asian characteristics of rural buildings and successfully recognized about 2.87 million rural buildings in 34 Vietnamese provincial administrative districts with a total area of rural buildings of 2492 million square meters. The reliability of the identification results was verified by manual detection and quantitative statistics, and a multi-scale database of rural buildings in Vietnam based on individual rural buildings was created. Based on the database, this paper analyzes the distribution characteristics of rural buildings and summarizes characteristics of rural building distribution at the country, regional, and provincial scales. The identification results lay the foundation for the next study of urban–rural relations in Southeast Asia and the construction of a basic database on villages.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN URBAN-RURAL RELATIONS IN THE JACQUEVILLE DEPARTMENT (COTE DIVOIRE)

Urban-rural relations in the Jacqueville department are marked by daily mobility between rural and urban populations. These journeys are made possible by a network of taxi-brousses which provide links between these two geographical areas. This study aims to determine the central role of mobility between the town of Jacqueville and its hinterland. To achieve this main objective, a methodology based on documentary research, interviews and field surveys was favored. Investigations revealed that, despite relative mobility between the town of Jacqueville and its rural area, transport means and infrastructure between this urban center and its hinterland remain in an advanced state of deterioration, making mobility between these geographical areas difficult.

The Transformation of Rural Areas Located in China’s Agricultural Heritage Systems under the Evolution of Urban–Rural Relationships

The sustainable logic between the Agricultural Heritage System (AHS) and environmental synergy has been significantly changing with China’s urban–rural relationship shift from binary opposition to a stronger network exchange. During the process of transformation, China’s AHS rural areas encounter two major development trends and social realities, i.e., whether to continue conventional characteristic agricultural development or detach from conventional characteristic agricultural resources to achieve industrial transformation. Our aim is to analyze the structure, identity and functional transformation characteristics of AHS rural areas from the urban and rural scale, as well as to build an explanatory framework for transformation mechanisms. A total of 109 counties and five cases of important AHS areas in China are taken as research objects, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses to analyze the transformation of AHS rural areas from two aspects. On the one hand, for changes in single development elements, there are three development elements and corresponding transformation dimensions: (1) Land structure: there is a synergistic change between the increase in urbanization rate and the loss of rural land, with associated changes in space and production structure. (2) Population identity: the rural population loss in high-urbanization-level areas is severe, where farmers are combined or separated from traditional agriculture. (3) Industry function: the trend of non-agricultural development of the industrial economy is obvious, and the traditional functions of agriculture are facing a continuation or a deep transformation. On the other hand, for relations among development elements, combined with a regression analysis and field investigation, we try to explain how the development elements and characteristic elements influence each other while working together on the transformation of AHS rural areas. The transformation depends on the path of the original industrial structure, while the urban–rural income ratio, regional distribution and land urbanization rate all positively stimulate the transformation from agricultural industries to non-agricultural ones. Moreover, the transformation of AHS rural areas is also affected by the characteristic elements of their special agricultural heritage, specifically, whether the heritage is scalable, scarce or socialized, etc., and these special attributes can determine the different development forms of heritage elements in the modern agricultural industrial system.

Planetary rural thinking in digital geographies

In this commentary, I argue that planetary rural geographies and digital geographies have much to offer and learn from each other and identify their mutual reciprocities. By highlighting specific instances of digital mediation in rural areas, I demonstrate how digital technologies and practices are driving rural transformations at a planetary scale. Simultaneously, I identify how planetary rural thinking can offer valuable perspectives for digital geographers toward reconsidering urban-rural relations. I conclude by suggesting that Wang et al.'s call for more pluriversal planetary rural geographies may be achieved by attending to and incorporating considerations of the digital.

Spatial path to achieve urban-rural integration development − analytical framework for coupling the linkage and coordination of urban-rural system functions

This study presents a groundbreaking theoretical framework to examine the role of urban-rural system functions (URSFs) in the coordinated development of urban-rural integration (URI). The main emphasis is on the systematic, spatial, and procedural aspects of urban-rural relations (URRs), aiming to rectify the imbalances and deficiencies in URI development. Through multivariate measurement methods, the study evaluates the functional robustness of the urban-rural system (URS) from perspectives of living, production, and ecology, and distinguishes the degree of interaction and coordination. It introduces a spatial path for URI using module combinations and “point-axis” abstract logic. An empirical analysis of China's eastern provinces discloses a noticeable decrease in URS functionality from developed to underdeveloped regions. Although linkage and complementarity between urban and rural areas are significant, mutual promotion and equilibrium between urban and rural production and living functions remain suboptimal. In Shandong Province, the coordination attributes of the three primary URSFs are predominantly characterized by low coordination, an imbalance type of weaker R, and significant urban overshadowing of rural dynamics. Urban-rural synchronous promotion overwhelmingly defines URS functional relationship typologies. The integrated pattern of urban-rural development (URD) after the integration of system functions is a “point-area” feature, gradually expanding the scope from the URI model area, the URI pilot area, and the URI transition area to the URI key area, and shows the spatial structural layout of “two centers, three groups and six circles”. To achieve URI development, comprehensive planning and coordinated promotion of new urbanization and rural revitalization strategies are needed, focusing on micro-level rural regional system issues. The study emphasizes a new model and path for URI development, wherein urban areas support rural development, both develop synchronously, and rural development takes precedence over urban development.

Throwing the urban and the rural together: unconventional ecological farms in China

Amidst the backdrop of heightened rural–urban interactions, this article delves into the burgeoning phenomenon of unconventional ecological farms in Dali, a Chinese city that is usually perceived as being on the periphery of the urban world. Employing the planetary urbanization thesis in conjunction with the notion of throwntogetherness, this article explicates the trajectories that underpin the emergence of these peri-urban establishments in a way that displays instances of urbanization. Additionally, this article reveals how ostensibly capitalist moments are intricately interwoven with, and fundamentally contingent upon, the coming together of two reconfigurative forces: (1) the changing aspirations and lifestyle preferences of Chinese urban dwellers, and (2) the increasing emphasis on environmental sustainability in urban governance, a trend that has gained momentum in the country over the past decade. In doing so, this article elucidates the dynamics of rural–urban relationships in contemporary China and highlights the efficacy of a relational approach to unveil the complexities of rural transformations.

Why small towns are shrinking: The spatial heterogeneity of small towns shrinkage and the impact of it from the perspective of rural-urban interaction in China.

Small towns play a crucial role in bridging urban and rural territory systems. While numerous studies have identified the characteristics and causes of small town shrinkage (STS), there remains an unexplored perspective on the reasons for their shrinkage from the perspective of the rural-urban relationship. To address this research gap, we investigated the relationship between STS and rural-urban interaction (RUI) in China. We hypothesized that a negative relationship existed between the degree of STS and the intensity of RUI. Using geo-statistical methods, such as the multi-scale geographical weighted regression (MGWR) model, the hypothesis was tested using Henan Province in China as a case study. The results indicated that the phenomenon of STS was observed extensively across the study region, with a 59% geographical overlap between the high-value area of STS and the low-value area of urban-rural interaction. Three distinct sub-types of STS regions were identified: shrinking regions along geographical borders, shrinking regions adjacent to metropolitan areas, and shrinking regions in ecologically fragile areas. The factors influencing STS demonstrated spatial heterogeneity and multi-scale characteristics. The findings will improve our understanding of urban shrinkage from a multi-level perspective and offer policy makers guidance for the sustainable development of small towns based on local conditions.

Enacted relations and the resilience of territorially embedded production systems in Europe

Globalization of food chains and scale increases in business models are dramatically affecting rural areas in Europe, by a simplification of land use, new urban-rural relations and reshaped social networks. While pressures on land use systems have been increasing due to the competition on commodity markets, the role of territorially embedded production systems remains crucial in keeping farm biodiversity and unique cultural landscapes, as well as social and cultural ties. Building on the social-ecological resilience approach (Darnhofer (2020b), this paper examines the resilience of territorially embedded production systems in different regions of Europe, including emergent and ongoing patterns of material, social and cultural relations. It shows how primary producers improve the resilience of their production systems in response to increasing pressures resulting from changing ecological, economic, social and cultural conditions. Three production systems are examined: carp farming in Middle Franconia, Germany; wine production in Tuscany, Italy; and olive oil production in Alentejo, Portugal. The paper adopts an adapted relational approach to conceptualise how resilience develops in terms of the ability of producers and their networks to develop new markets, reduce costs and add value. Different types of enacted relations (sets of mutually empowering connections in space and time) are identified, including relations among family members, between farmers, along the commodity chain and with other stakeholders, such as tourism, policy and regional administrations. Using these insights, the paper argues that it is important to shift the focus of agricultural resilience from the producer level to the network level, particularly how network dynamics emerge as relations enacted by diverse actors. These collaborative efforts have the potential to enable primary producers to maintain cultural landscapes, preserve their ecosystems and ensure the farms’ economic survival and by extension help to maintain the socio-ecological resilience of territorial production systems.

How should rural development be chosen? The mechanism narration of rural regional function: A case study of Gansu Province, China

Several major changes in China's land policy, economic system, and development strategy have contributed to the continuous transformation of rural patterns and urban-rural relations. The deepening of urban-rural interaction has led to an increasing complexity of rural territorial functions, and the importance of territorial multifunctional mechanisms in the dynamic process of rural development in China has been highlighted. However, the current choice of a rural development model lacks comprehensive thinking that combines the functional mechanisms of rural areas with the elements of the development environment. In this paper, we define and identify the functions of rural areas in Gansu Province, China, and analyze and construct a rural development model by analyzing the interaction between the mechanisms of rural regional functions and the “rural revitalization” strategy. We find that under the control of “rural revitalization,” a sustainable development tool, the countryside is constantly developing into a multifunctional complex, and its development mode should be dynamically adjusted according to functional changes. Finally, we summarize the general evolutionary cycle of the multifunctional system of rural regions and attempt to extrapolate the dynamic developmental village type classification process of “rural revitalization” from the perspective of rural regional functions in China.

The Puppet Regime, Rent-Collecting Groups, and Rent-Tax Relations in Changshu County, Jiangsu Province, during the Japanese Puppet Regime Era

Abstract The land tax was a major source of local fiscal revenue in southern Jiangsu during the Japanese puppet regime era. It involved a complex tug-of-war between the puppet “central” and local governments and was closely tied to rent affairs. At the onset of the “Rural Pacification,” the simultaneous imposition of rent and taxes by the Japanese puppet regime infringed upon various stakeholders’ interests but did not aid in increasing land tax revenue or stabilizing the economy. Instead, the regime could only profit from local surcharges via the embezzlement case in Changshu County. In the process of grabbing land taxes and constructing tax collection standards, both the puppet regime and the rent-collecting groups pursued their own interests, colluding and competing with each other. In the meantime, the puppet regime, aiming at extracting land output, disrupted the existing rent-tax management method, thereby reconstructing the urban-rural relationship in southern Jiangsu and increasing the peasants’ burden. The rent-tax issue in Changshu County during the occupation period reflects the entanglement of the three-fold relationships – “central” vs. local, “official” vs. civilian, and landlord vs. tenant – under the Japanese puppet regime. Yet, the acute landlord-tenant contradiction was ultimately replaced by social conflicts provoked by the Japanese puppet regime’s intervention in land ownership and usage rights.

Rural as a Frontier of Expression in Contemporary Chinese Architecture

Village hollowing can be seen as the other side of the coin of the binomial land taking and farmland shrinking. Its mitigation, control, and counterbalance are top priorities in the People’s Republic of China. The reasons span from social and cultural to economic and demographic to environmental aspects, and the cross-disciplinary dilemma that derives calls for original and innovative approaches to revitalize the countryside. In China, design and planning fields have been acknowledged to play a leading role in reshaping rural-urban relationships and the related controversial transition. This paper discusses how some Chinese architects engaged in rural projects explored new possibilities of design expression. Representatives of a multitude, they tested local materials and traditional techniques in innovative ways, renovating design processes and architectural languages. Their engagement has generated a variety of approaches showcasing surprising solutions characterized by challenging attitudes toward standards, dogmas, and canons. In this way, they stimulated a vivid debate repositioning the role of designing at a global level. The paper puts forward an interpretative key to observe how Chinese architects envision the future of ruralities.

Enabling In-Situ Urbanization through Digitalization

The bourgeoning of e-commerce in the context of the information era has accelerated the urbanization trend by broaching a new horizon of economic and industrial boosters for rural places, epitomized by a great number of “Taobao Villages” in China. This paper has two objectives: (1) explore the process and mechanism of digitalization enabling rural in-situ urbanization represented by e-commerce; (2) nuance the specific case evidence of Daiji Town, where digitalization enabled in-situ urbanization recently. We build up a theoretical framework for digitalization-enabled in-situ urbanization from the juxtaposition of four interlinked elements: industry, talent, rural governance, and land use. It then analyzed the details and evidence of digitalization enabling rural in-situ urbanization through the case study of Daiji Town. The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: First, digitalization plugs rural areas into production and consumption networks in wider contexts, promoting the transformation and prosperity of rural economies. Secondly, the reverse migration of young generations to rural areas becomes the key to rural in-situ urbanization. Thirdly, digitization materializes the urbanization of rural spaces. Finally, digitalization enables the rural transformation and improvement of urban-rural relations in the Global South, which needs to be further explored.

Exploring Divergent Patterns and Dynamics of Urban and Active Rural Developments—A Case Study of Dezhou City

Clarifying urban-rural spatial explicit structure changes is of great significance for understanding the urban-rural relationship evolution. Previous studies have mostly focused on urban internal spatial structure evolutions and less on the regional scale when it comes to exploring urban and rural evolutions. Nighttime light can timely reflect the human activities in regions and provides great potential for investigating the evolutions of urban and rural spatial explicit structures. Here, taking Dezhou City, a rapidly urbanizing city in China, as a case study, we employed the local contour tree method and nighttime light data to map urban and active rural extents from 2012 to 2020 and further explored their respective development processes. This study showed that unlike in rural regions, the internally explicit structures of urban regions were more complex, and there were often multiple hotspots inside them. The area of the urban-rural region increased significantly by 39.3% from 2012 to 2020 (p < 0.05). Populations were greatly responsible for the spatial explicit structure changes of urban and active rural regions. The urban and rural region rankings of the identified counties were basically consistent with the urban and rural population rankings. Unlike the perspectives of earlier land use (i.e., built-up land or impervious surface), this study underlined urban and active rural regions in view of the scope of active human activities. These results can likely help policymakers understand current active human activity extents and provide a data-based reference for future public services and infrastructure planning.

Planetary rural geographies

This paper proposes planetary rural geographies to counter the narrative of planetary urbanisation, which has contended that the whole planet has been urbanised and can be understood through urban theory without an outside. Whilst critics have challenged the metrophilia inherent to planetary urbanisation, advanced post-colonial critiques, and posited alternative models of ruralisation, we argue that these responses fall short of fully embracing the radical potential of a planetary perspective. We call for planetary rural geographies that examine rural places as sites of interaction between diverse more-than-human relations that extend above and below the Earth surface and contend that the configuration of human–environment interactions at the ‘rural’ end of urban–rural relations is critical to addressing planetary crises. We elaborate this argument by focusing on three geographies of planetary rurality: as a space of crisis, as a space of conflict, and as a space of hope, evidenced by examples drawn from the global rural literature.

Lost in a haze or playing to partners’ strengths? Learning to collaborate in three transdisciplinary European Living Labs

The ability to learn from each other plays a central role in successful transdisciplinary (TD) collaboration. This article systematically investigates how learning to collaborate allows researchers and practitioners to navigate the challenges of collaborative TD work. Drawing on social learning theory, we emphasise the processual nature of social learning in TD research as learning to collaborate. We examine collaborative learning processes in three Living Labs located in different socio-cultural and institutional contexts in Europe. The Living Labs explored the conditions for mutually beneficial rural-urban relations. We use data from a systematic monitoring of a 4-year Horizon 2020 research project. Our analysis illustrates how learning in and through collaboration can enhance individual and collective capacities to deal with different perspectives, priorities, and approaches, enabling the achievement of transformative objectives. We also show how particular factors and conditions lead to differing learning histories and a lack of attention to learning processes may result in challenges to collaboration. This provides a more encompassing understanding of the complex learning dynamics underpinning TD research. We argue that an intentional focus on collaborative learning processes is essential to fulfil the aspiration of TD research to contribute to creating knowledge and capacities for the co-production of sustainable futures.

Has Rural Public Services Weakened Population Migration in the Sichuan–Chongqing Region? Spatiotemporal Association Patterns and Their Influencing Factors

The association between rural public services (RPSs) and population migration (PM) has become a key aspect of rapid urbanization in developing countries and an important breakthrough for improving rural–urban relations. An in-depth analysis of the heterogeneity of the weakening effect of RPSs on PM at different transformation phases and the internal mechanism of the evolution of association patterns driven by RPSs and PM helps to ensure better co-ordinated urban and rural development. This paper establishes an interactive analysis framework for measuring the spatiotemporal association and regional differences between RPSs and PM in the Sichuan–Chongqing region (SCR), and reveals the influence mechanism by employing multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR). The results indicate that the association rapidly increased with clear spatial heterogeneity across topographic units and the weakening effect of RPSs on PM begin to diverge during the urban–rural transition. The natural, economic, social, and urban–rural disparity factors in terms of the association exhibit significant spatial variability. In mountainous areas, where topography dominates, RPSs fail to effectively weaken rural migration. However, in the plain areas, urbanization is the main driver of urban–rural transition, and the adaptive upgrading and transformation of RPSs has made their weakening effect stronger, thus alleviating rural exodus and increasing population concentration. All these findings show that differentiated optimization strategies adhering to the association trends should be proposed for a deeper integration of rural revitalization and new urbanization in the SCR.