ABSTRACT
But because urban centres are generally viewed as key nodes within potentially more competitive economies – alongside the acknowledgement of a functional interdependence (Box 11.2) between urban cores and surrounding hinterlands (Hall and Pain, 2006; Hoggart 2005) – it is important to think about these linkages, and what they will mean for the countryside in the future. In 1999, the European Spatial Development Perspective (CSD, 1999) sought to provide an informal framework intended to shape thinking on the strategies and policies needed (at a national level) to promote regional, national and pan-European competitiveness and cohesion (Faludi and Waterhout, 2002; Faludi, 2005). It emphasised the need for a new urban-rural relationship, as a means of overcoming the dualism between city and countryside and as an essential prerequisite to achieving territorial cohesion (Box 11.1).
