Urban-rural Relations Research Articles

Transformation of Urban–Rural Relationships in the Context of Global Challenges

AbstractThis article updates and further develops the reflections of “Urbanization and Sustainability after the COVID-19 Pandemic” (Motta 2020). It is now even more urgent to focus on the urban–rural relationships that are being modified by the pandemic, climate change, and the impacts of conflicts, causing serious human insecurities and increasing precarious circumstances worldwide. The fast-changing situation and recurrent emergencies confirm the need for a new urban development approach, related to the specificities of the surrounding environment and based on the revival of towns and settlements spread over territories. This should function as a complementary tool to mitigate urbanization flows and urban–rural gaps, identifying new relationships. This requires the review of current urban paradigms, which are no longer able to respond to modified conditions and demands with an innovative vision. This is actualized on the basis of the principles of the social quality theory (SQT) and approach (SQA) and their emphasis on processes in and between the four relevant dimensions of societal life. In the past decade, these principles have been developed tentatively in working papers about sustainability and urban issues from a social quality perspective.

Investigating the Role of Urban–Rural Economies in the Development of Rural Settlements: Fresh Evidence from Iran

Urban–rural relations are recognised as one of the essential factors in the occurrence of social, economic and cultural changes in urban and rural areas. However, most planning and development theories emphasise the duality of the city and village. Numerous correspondences in rural towns can lead to the development or underdevelopment of rural or urban areas. Therefore, this study investigates the role of rural-urban economies in developing rural settlements in the Balajer, QarahSaqal, Sarrjez and Dehshams of the Nalous district of Iran. The study is based on primary data sources as well as secondary data sources. Moreover, the method of data collection combines documentary and field survey methods. The data have been collected from 240 households. The secondary sources are studies, journals, business magazines and published literature. In this work, the descriptive-analytical relationships have been examined. The study’s statistical population includes all rural households in the sampled villages. For data analysis, Cronbach’s test, one-sample t-test, Pearson correlation and linear regression model. The t-test result was 2.54, which assessed the poor relationship between the city and the village. Also, in the Pearson correlation test, the flow of urban investment in rural economic activities has a higher correlation. In the regression test, communication flow has significantly impacted communication by providing financial resources.

Liikuvus maal – läbi kriiside hübriidse võrgustunud ruumi poole

Silence and tranquillity form an integral part of rural life and contribute to our understanding of rurality. Thus, it is generally held that time passes slowly in the countryside, far from the nervous city life. Therefore, it is not surprising that mobility and movement (which are associated with speed and being busy) are associated with urbanity and stillness with rurality. Peace and quiet and the absence of hustle are highlighted even by those who live in the countryside and spend long hours in the car commuting between work and home. Such an image affects people’s daily life decisions, movement patterns, local development and infrastructure, as well as national policy of shaping rural life. What is often overlooked is that rural areas are connected to cities in hybrid and extensive ways that affect the development of society as a whole. This article analyses the networks between the country and the city in two recent crises – the COVID-19 pandemic and Ukrainian refugee crisis. It is argued that these relational connections surface vividly in situations of crisis and show that urban-rural networks constitute a kind of hybrid socio-spatial form. Although the boundaries between them are blurred, the image of both rurality and urbanity is powerfully created in discourses and in everyday debates, justifying daily decisions, thus ignoring the intertwined character of these urban-rural relations. Both crises referred to the importance of motility – in both cases, who could move, where and with what timing was of critical importance. In the case of the pandemic, inequalities in mobility manifested themselves in different spheres – which urban dwellers could move to the countryside (owning a country home is a privilege), who could work remotely (mostly in middle-class jobs) or who could go to a place with limited access (mostly islands or popular domestic tourism areas). In the case of Ukrainians, the ability to move was also critical – it consisted in the very possibility of leaving Ukraine. Even after arriving in Estonia, the fate of the refugees largely depended on the location where they found themselves – either in a big city where it was easy to move with the help of public transport or on foot, or in rural areas where it was more difficult to get around due to the lack of public transportation. During the Ukrainian refugee crisis, the rural cosmopolitanism emerged in Estonia more clearly than before. On the one hand, the ethnic and cultural composition of small places changed almost overnight, and thus rural areas became more diverse. On the other hand, this unexpected challenge showed that the rural cosmopolitan community is in many ways vulnerable and precarious. It is noteworthy that strong cultural constructions of rural people (peaceful, safe) and urban people (dangerous invaders) surfaced in conflict situations. On the other hand, the tensions showed how closely the country and the city are connected through mobility. At the same time, mobilities also affected the daily life of people who did not move. One person’s movement could affect another’s staying put, as well as interpersonal relationships, political decisions, and life arrangements. It can be concluded that rural areas are becoming more hybrid for various reasons, and they are connected to the city through various forms of movement in ways that may go unnoticed at first glance, but which emerge precisely in crisis situations. Crises also highlight the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of these bonds, as well as their strengths. Rural populations and their modes of movement shape everyday practices and infrastructures, just as the image and discursive power of rural areas shapes people’s decisions – both big and small.

Hesitant migration to emergent cities: Angola’s intentional urbanism of the ‘centralidades’

This article discusses migration to rural areas in Africa and its relation to the emergence and development of new towns and urbanism. New conditions of mobility and the establishment and development of newly urban and proto-urban areas call for a reassessment of mobility and settlement dynamics. Changing contexts of urban-rural relations with important societal implications, new transformations and reconfigurations of urban forms call for analyses beyond rural exoduses, unequal territorial development, or the primacy of major cities. In Angola, urban construction, namely of the new ‘centralidades’—emergent new cities made of blocks of buildings and respective infrastructure in vacant areas in the countryside—attempts the creation of cities before the agglomeration of population or the undertakings to attract migration, other than just housing. This intentional urbanisation is thus characterised by hesitant settlement, which this article analyses using empirical material collected in a variety of Angolan centralidades.

Reconceptualising the rural through planetary thinking: A field experiment of sustainable approaches to rural revitalisation in China

Drawing on a critical reflection on the long-lasting debates of rural-urban dichotomy, we argue for a reconceptualisation of the rural that emphasises the ever-evolving and multifaceted nature of rurality to explore alternative pathways of rural revitalisation through non-urban-centric planetary thinking. Instead of viewing the rural and the urban as two contrasting and competing categories, we advocate for planetary thinking that looks beyond spatial boundaries and volumetric changes to focus on the co-evolving multiple trajectories of human-nature interaction, with a particular emphasis on rural transformation. Our propositions are three-fold. First, as an integral and indispensable component of the planetary system, the sustainable and equitable development of the rural is of planetary significance. The harmonious human-nature relations embodied in rural practices hold the key to tackling anthropogenic challenges. Second, rurality is constantly rejuvenated and enriched by new economic and sociocultural practices and technological innovations along with its urban counterpart, during which ruralisation and urbanisation are intersecting and co-evolving at the planetary scale. Third, rural communities are important nodes of the planetary networks of resources, people, information, and knowledge connected through multi-directional flows in which the agency of rural communities is increasingly being recognised and strengthened. We then present a field experiment of green development in Shishou, central China to exemplify how this reconceptualisation helps to foster virtuous urban-rural interactions in response to national and global changes to unleash the potentials of the countryside through sustainable revitalisation approaches. While the green development experiment in Shishou is far from ideal, the project demonstrates major breakthroughs concerning rural-urban relations and the multifaceted rurality. These new approaches to rural revitalisation hold the hope for nurturing endogenous growth through empowering local communities and catering to indigenous needs while addressing planetary challenges, which can eventually be scaled up to wider regions and further afield.

The Net Spatio-Temporal Impact of the International Tourism Is-Land Strategy on the Ecosystem Service Value of Hainan Island: A Counterfactual Analysis

The strategy of building an international tourism island in Hainan is an important national strategic deployment, with tourism as the core, integrating a series of issues such as industry, tropical agriculture, and urban-rural relations. The implementation of this strategy profoundly affects the evolution of local land use patterns and ecosystems on Hainan Island. This paper utilizes a counterfactual analysis framework and Cellular Automata (CA)-Markov model based on the current land use data of Hainan Island for the three periods of 1999, 2008 and 2017. Accordingly, the spatial and temporal conditions of ecosystem service values (ESV) in 2017, under the assumed scenario of unimplemented international tourism island strategy, were simulated. The net spatial and temporal impacts of the international tourism island construction strategy on the value of ecosystem services on Hainan Island were finally assessed. The results are as follows. First, the total value of ESV in Hainan Island in 1999, 2008 and 2017 were 33.88 billion yuan, 56.045 billion yuan and 50.417 billion yuan respectively showing a trend of first increasing and then decreasing; spatially, the ESV were high in the central region and low in the surrounding areas. Second, in the simulated scenario without the implementation of the international tourism island construction strategy in 2017, the total ESV of Hainan Island was 54.19 billion yuan. Third, the implementation of the international tourism island policy reduced the ESV by 3773 million yuan, and the impact of this policy was high in coastal areas and low inland. There was an obvious divergence between the positive and negative effects.

Understanding the Role of Nature in Urban-Rural Linkages: Identifying the Potential Role of Rural Nature-Based Attractive Clusters That Serve Human Well-Being

Rural areas provide unique amenities for recreational purposes which are highly appreciated by urban inhabitants. This generates an important but often hidden relationship between the urban and the rural. The aim of our study is first to provide empirical evidence for this linkage and then to identify for Italy, at the municipal level, those rural areas which actually function as nature-based attractive clusters. We used the data coming from a participatory webGIS survey that asked 1632 Italian respondents to mark attractive nature related places locally, regionally, nationally and world-wide to explain quantitatively and qualitatively the relationship between urban and rural. From the survey, indicators were developed to rank the nature-based attractive clusters. Our results pointed out a major (almost double) flow from urban to rural for natural amenities, which increased with the spatial level at which attractive nature areas were marked. This analysis allowed for the identification rural clusters of Italian municipalities that form nodal points for nature-based urban well-being; shedding light on an often neglected urban-rural relationship. The method is applicable in other countries and may stimulate better planning and management strategies for improving rural areas, taking an urban-rural perspective.

The Governance Path of Urban–Rural Integration in Changing Urban–Rural Relationships in the Metropolitan Area: A Case Study of Wuhan, China

Since the founding of the country, China’s urban–rural relations have experienced four stages: differentiation, opposition, coordination, and equivalence. The scope of rural research has expanded from individual villages to group relations, and the research content also tends to the urban–rural integration trend of factor flow. In the context of New Urbanization and the Rural Revitalization Strategies, urban–rural integration is an important starting point to solve urban–rural contradictions, and the metropolitan area is an important spatial carrier to achieving urban–rural integration. Based on investigating the key issues of urban–rural integration and metropolitan governance, this paper constructs a “place function” cognitive framework of urban–rural space in the metropolitan area, and takes Wuhan metropolitan area with its dense rural distribution as an example to recognize the urban–rural spatial characteristics of the metropolitan area scale from six dimensions: spatial structure, land use, settlement distribution, scenic spots, agricultural enterprises, and service facilities. Then, it proposes a spatial development model of the Wuhan metropolitan area of the “point axis structure-, functional area-, resilient network”, and further explores the urban–rural integration path of “planning guidance, policy promotion, and spatial support”.

Career Development, Institutional Factors, Social Factors and Urban Young Returnees' Happiness in the Context of Healthy China.

In the context of the Healthy China 2030 Plan, the importance of the happiness of urban young returnees should not be underestimated. Based on a large-scale social survey of social practices in China, this paper applies a hierarchical linear regression model (HLM) and a structural equation model (SEM) to investigate the determinants of urban young returnees’ happiness. The results show that the happiness of urban young returnees in China is not only influenced by their socio-demographic characteristics, such as age and education, but mainly by their occupational development, institutional factors (especially the employment and entrepreneurship policy system) and social factors (physical environment and urban rural relationship), which are different from those of ordinary residents. Further study shows that occupational development indirectly affects the happiness of urban young returnees through relationship adaptation, collective adaptation and material adaptation, the indirect effects accounts for 42.18%, 21.64% and 36.18%, respectively. Institutional factors exert an indirect effect on the happiness of urban young returnees through relationship adaptation (46.80%) and material adaptation (53.20%). Social factors indirectly affect the happiness of urban young returnees through relationship adaptation (44.20%), collective adaptation (16.96%) and material adaptation (38.84%). Policies to improve the happiness of urban young returnees are suggested.

Contributions of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Strengthening Rural-Urban Linkages in Wolaita Zone, South Ethiopia

Development policies and strategies of Ethiopia envisage micro small and medium enterprises as a strategic tool for strengthening rural-urban linkages and for bringing overall economic development and poverty eradication. This is due to the role of the enterprises in bridging urban and rural areas together and showing the interdependence of the rural and urban economies in developing countries. However, the Ethiopian micro, small and medium enterprises do not seem to be on the right track in their relationship to the agricultural sector as required by the government policy, strategies and the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the capacity of micro, small and medium enterprises to forge rural-urban relationships that will assist towards achieving the goals of Growth and Transformation Plan. The study is based on a concurrent triangulation mixed-method approach using both quantitative and qualitative data with a questionnaire survey from 525 owners/managers of micro, small and medium enterprises as the main data collection tool. The study also collected qualitative data through informant interviews from 22 MSME owners/managers and 10 urban planners. The paper finds from the study that as high as 53.1 percent of micro, small and medium enterprises in the three administrative towns of Wolaita in south Ethiopia are wholly or partially dependent on industrial products for their inputs and that only 1.5 percent appear involved in the production and supply of agricultural inputs. Moreover, as much as 57.6 percent of the study's respondents chose the main reason hindering linkages as the unavailability of preferred and quality raw materials in the local market. In order to promote the linkage between the two sectors and areas, both the agricultural and MSME sectors' productivity should be enhanced through improved agricultural productivity and enhancing the performance of the small business sector to provide agricultural inputs.

Study on Spatial–Temporal Evolution Characteristics and Restrictive Factors of Urban–Rural Integration in Northeast China from 2000 to 2019

With the rapid development of urbanization and the widening gap between urban and rural areas, how to effectively enhance the balanced development of urban and rural areas as well as promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas have become heated topics. Based on the basic theory of urban–rural integration and spatial balance, this paper establishes a comprehensive evaluation system. Using a coupling coordination model and an obstacle degree model, this paper selects 32 indicators from aspects of economy, society and ecology to measure the development level of urban–rural integration in 34 prefecture-level cities in Northeast China from 2000 to 2019. We also analyze the spatial pattern, evolution type characteristics and obstacle factors of urban–rural relations. The results show that: (1) The growth rate of urban development in Northeast China is higher than that of rural development. Except for rural ecology, all dimensions of urban and rural areas have increased year by year, but there are large spatial differences within the region. (2) The urban–rural integration development level of Northeast China is growing constantly and the types of urban and rural coordination are all rising to a higher level. Areas with high urban–rural coordination levels are concentrated in the Harbin–Changchun urban agglomeration and the central and southern Liaoning urban agglomeration, with obvious agglomeration effects. (3) In the coordinated development of urban and rural areas, the restrictive degree of the rural social subsystem was higher than that of the urban subsystem. The restrictive factors in the coordinated development of urban and rural areas are relatively stable, and include per capita consumption expenditure, per capita public budget expenditure, books in public libraries per thousand people, etc. (4) The functions of rural social elements should be enhanced, and the social urban–rural integrated development mechanism should be established to promote the integrated development of urban and rural society.

Analyzing the Driving Mechanism of Rural Transition from the Perspective of Rural–Urban Continuum: A Case Study of Suzhou, China

Rural transition has become a core topic in the study of the urban–rural relationship in China. Analyzing the transition process and sorting out the key driving factors in different periods is essential for providing critical references for the urban–rural integration and rural revitalization policy. This paper takes Suzhou, a rapidly urbanizing prefecture-level city that has experienced three obvious stages of rural transition since China’s reform and opening-up, as the case area to explore the driving mechanism from the perspective of rural–urban continuum. We first construct the index system for measuring rural transition from two dimensions of rurality and urbanity. Then, we identify the core influencing factors of different phases from 1990 to 2015, employing spatial regression models and then extract the main driving mechanism. The results revealed the following key findings. (1) Rural transition in Suzhou has both proximity effects and structural effects; the development patterns of rural areas are becoming more heterogeneous. (2) From the rurality dimension, the regression coefficient of index representing grain production changes from positive to negative during the research periods, reflecting the “non-grain” trend of agricultural production in rural areas. (3) From the urbanity dimension, the regression coefficient of index promoting by foreign direct investment increases from 0.372 in 1990 to 0.829 in 2015, indicating that the external driving force of rural transition has become stronger. (4) In 2015, the regression coefficient of index representing tertiary industry reaches 0.468, meaning the modern service industry has played an increasingly important role in rural development. Our study provides valuable insights into the dynamic change of driving mechanism of rural transition at the town level, argues that the general trend of viewing transition process as rurality weakens and urbanity enhances could be replaced by multifunctional pathways. This study supplements existing research to understand new phenomena during the transition process, the latter offer implications for policy-making, such as grain security, spatial spillovers, and rural tourism.

Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Characteristics and Dynamic Effects of Urban-Rural Integration Development in the Yangtze River Delta Region

Urban-rural integration has been found to be an inevitable trend in the development of urban-rural relations and a vital measure to tackle the unbalanced and uncoordinated development between urban and rural areas. Most existing studies on the development of urban-rural integration have only estimated its level and factors and compared the heterogeneity of cities in sample regions. Few studies have focused on the interactions between different categories of urban-rural integration levels. Accordingly, to fill the above research gap, an evaluation index system of the development of urban-rural integration is built in this study from four economic-social-spatial-ecological dimensions, the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of the development of urban-rural integration in 27 central cities in the Yangtze River Delta region between 2003 and 2020 are analyzed, and the intrinsic dynamic shock effects are empirically investigated using a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model. This study suggests the following points: (1) the development of urban-rural integration in the Yangtze River Delta region tends to increase while fluctuating and experiences an evolutionary process of “severe dysfunction–moderate dysfunction–mild dysfunction”, with an overall positive development trend. (2) In the study period, the agglomeration effect of the level of the development of urban-rural integration in the Yangtze River Delta has been strengthened continuously, and the overall spatial distribution pattern has changed from “low level, low gap” to “high level, high gap”, showing the characteristics of decreasing class distribution step by step, with Shanghai and Anqing as the markers from east to west. (3) All the endogenous variables of the development of urban-rural integration show a continuous positive response to their own shocks, thus suggesting that the respective variable has a certain path dependence on itself. Shocks of urban-rural ecological integration are capable of boosting the improvement of urban-rural economic integration and urban-rural social integration development, and shocks of urban-rural social integration contribute to the improvement of urban-rural ecological integration. The important policy implication of this study is that an intra-regional linkage and coordination mechanism should be built in the future, while the focus should be placed on the heterogeneity of regional development, and policies and measures regarding development of urban-rural integration in a disaggregated manner should be developed, so as to facilitate the improvement of the level of regional development of urban-rural integration.

The Fruits of Business Anthropology in China (Book Review)

This (Business Anthropology: New Progress in China. By Chen Gang and Tian Guang. North American Business Press, 2022) is an exciting compilation of ethnographies in Western China by the authors and their colleagues. But “exciting” is probably not the first reaction that surfaces in looking only at the chapter titles – roads, food service, NGOs, and entrepreneurs are topics that seem likely to arouse little interest except to those whose research lies in these areas. Likewise female smokers, border markets, urban-rural relations, and stone pot chicken may appear to be eccentric topics at first glance. But the talented ethnographers who conducted this research and wrote these chapters are able to deftly develop their topics and to make them come alive. They then step back and allow us to contemplate the broader significance of the patterns of business and consumer behavior that they have discovered. They show how changes hailed as modernization are affecting several of China’s 55 ethnic minorities and their engagement with Han Chinese and foreigners from Vietnam, Korea, Laos, and Myanmar. In one case they are able to step even farther back and contrast Asian and African time styles and business styles and to use the chapter to comment on China’s soft power and its Belt and Road initiative in Africa.

The historical logics and geographical patterns of rural-urban governance in China

The advent of a mobile society has led to profound changes in China’s traditional rural-urban pattern and called for new strategies for urban and rural governance. Based on a macro perspective of temporal and spatial evolution, this study analyzes the historical logics of rural-urban governance, explores the geographical patterns of challenges in China’s rural-urban governance, and finally puts forward targeted strategies for rural-urban governance toward integrated and sustainable development in China. From the historical perspective, the urban originates from the rural, and the connotation of rural, that is, a regional-scale outlook, rural-urban relations, and sociocultural interaction, forms the traditional approach to rural-urban governance. China’s rural-urban governance has evolved from antagonism toward integration. In terms of theoretical development, the turn toward mobility is an important driving factor shaping and promoting the transformation of research focus on rural-urban governance. The mobility of urban and rural factors has especially in recent decades brought extensive challenges for governance, which are highlighted by the disintegration of the stability of rural and urban structures, growing regional disparities in rural education levels, and serious aging and hollowing crises in rural areas. We therefore propose that rural-urban governance should give sufficient consideration to the convergence of wider interests; realize social potential through institutional, cultural and spatial restructuring; and attach importance to collaborative development and governance. And the transfer of rural problems to urban areas should be paid attention to by rural-urban governance. This research enriches the knowledge regarding the logics and patterns of China’s rural-urban governance from an interdisciplinary perspective. It is also helpful in the promotion of rural-urban integration and sustainable development, especially at a time when the mobility of social factors between rural areas and urban areas increasingly challenges traditional urban and rural governance and drives its evolution.

Spatial–Temporal Characteristics and Driving Mechanisms of Land–Use Transition from the Perspective of Urban–Rural Transformation Development: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta

Urban–rural transformation development is the key to resolving the imbalance in the dual structure of urban and rural areas. However, the transformation of the urban–rural relationship will also affect the structure and spatial distribution of land use. This paper measured the spatial–temporal characteristics of land–use transition in the Yangtze River Delta from 1990 to 2018 by using a geo–information Tupu method and explored the driving mechanism of land–use transition under the background of urban–rural transformation development by using a spatial regression analysis method. The results showed the following: (1) The transition from cultivated land to urban construction land, from rural residential land to cultivated land, and from rural residential land to urban construction land were the three main types of land–use transition in the Yangtze River Delta during urban–rural transformation development. (2) The transition from cultivated land to urban construction land was always the most important type of land–use transition. It expanded from the central area to the surrounding cities. The transition of rural residential land to cultivated land and urban construction land began to increase significantly after the year 2010, which was the urban–rural integration development period. (3) The urban–rural land–use transition was driven by government policies, industrial restructuring, population urbanization and migration. During the urban–rural integration development period, secondary industry and tertiary industry were the main driving factors of the transition from cultivated land to urban construction land. The number of policies, the primary industry, the total population, and the urbanization rate were the main driving factors of the transition from rural residential land to cultivated land. Primary industry, secondary industry, and tertiary industry were the main driving factors of the transition from rural residential land to urban construction land. Finally, the study provided some suggestions for policy, industry, and population driving forces.

Performing rurality and urbanity: Language performations, materials and land-use politics

This paper examines an environmental controversy over land use in the Taiwanese countryside where paddy fields have been colonised by informal, ‘illegal’ factories, some by the world's leading manufacturing companies. To deal with this, the Government made efforts to develop a novel, spatial planning policy but this provoked more disputes. For Anglophone scholars, the disputes indicate that different representations of spatialities are often in conflict with one another, shaping contemporary spatial development. However, by emphasising the notion of untranslatability, theoretical interventions have sought to problematise English concepts such as ‘rural’ and ‘urban’. Building on the work of language politics, critics have proposed the use of ‘original’ terms in describing spatial identities. Such a decolonialisation gesture is a timely intervention, challenging the hegemony of Anglophone rural research. However, this paper contends that research into language politics can be enriched by attending to the volatile nature of language and the importance of material objects. Drawing on Austin and Callon's work on the performation of language, this paper suggests that the meaning of a specific spatial concept is not a pre-existing reality, but rather, an ongoing socio-technical achievement. I suggest that rural politics can be understood as a continuous performation struggle or the competition between socio-technical assemblages. With reference to a case study surrounding the controversy over farmland use in Taiwan, my analysis calls for polyvocal, pragmatic approaches to comparative, rural-urban research. With an emphasis on the shifting notions of rural-urban relationships and rurality, this paper problematises the long-lasting, rural-urban dichotomy.

Rural Policing in the Long Trecento: An Urban Project and Its Obstruction

Abstract The intricacies of urban–rural relations surface with rare detail from the records of Italian field wardens (campari) from the late thirteenth to the mid-fifteenth century. Focusing on the region of Piedmont, in the peninsula’s north-west, this article traces the policing of numerous sites and species by the campari as part of an urban bio- and agropolitical project. The office reflects the growing desire of towns to control their surrounding countryside, not only for military defence, but also as an essential source of calorific and hydraulic energy, a sink for waste and a stage on which to showcase their power before internal and external audiences. Reconstructing the remits, norms and actions of field wardens thus illuminates power negotiations that were shaped by a range of environmental factors and the era’s thinking about hygiene. Yet analysing the activities and responsibilities of the campari also reveals the tactics that rural dwellers devised to contest urban discipline, for instance through self-help, concealment and the embellishment of charges made against them. From the perspective of the area’s historiography, the dynamics captured by these records challenge the centrality of landed aristocracies in narratives of political centralisation. And from a broader perspective, the granular view they afford of middling officials at work invites historians to explore what urbanisation meant at the ground level, on either side of the city walls.

Dancing in the dark: how food governance can support resilience in Portland, Oregon

ABSTRACT According to various scholars, resilience (i.e., the capacity to adapt and evolve in unpredictable situations) implementation becomes most effective when it involves several civic institutions, agencies, and individual citizens working together toward common goals within a common strategy. Such networks can work together and weather unexpected crises as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Key aspects of this process are the development of a more integrated and holistic approach, meanwhile, the metropolitan resilience requires more collaboration across urban and rural boundaries. Food governance can help to promote resilience: since food system governance manifests the need to implement an integrated approach. Moreover, food system governance stimulates redefinition of the territorial scale and of the criteria for assessing resilience on such a scale. This paper provides a critical analysis of the above issues. Having experimented with food policies, integrated approaches, and redefinition of urban-rural relationships for several years, Portland proves to be a good vantage point for observing mechanisms relating to these issues.

SYSTEMS CONNECTIVITY FOR SOUND URBAN POLICY CREATION AND ENHANCEMENT: EXPLORING RURAL-URBAN INTERDEPENDENCIES AND LINKAGES FOR INCLUSIVE CITIES

This article is based on a study that investigated and examined the relevance of rural-urban linkages towards sustainable and inclusive development for both cities and rural areas. It argues that rural-urban linkages have great potential in facilitating sustainable development when harnessed and supported. The old definitive notion of rural and urban areas separated the two as distinct and independent regions. This led to biased policy initiatives towards urban development without consideration of the interdependencies between the two regions. The article is based on a desktop study involving the interrogation of literature and documents extracted from Google scholar, Ebsco and websites with news and policies and related material for data analysis. Emerging from the study are three main observations, that rural-urban linkages have huge potential that can help improve development; if not managed well, they can be manipulative and beneficial to one side and active participation in decision-making and implementation paves way for a sustainable future. It concludes that an in-depth understanding of these linkages can help harness the potential benefits that emanate from the rural-urban relationship. Policy recommendations are given that encourage inclusive city development rather than the separationist approach that dissects the existing rural-urban linkages.