ABSTRACT
Too often in the past, ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ have been seen as quite separate and different. Although we have decided to have separate chapters on rural and urban issues in this book as an organizational aid to dividing up topics, we are very much aware that over the last two decades there has been questioning of whether they should be treated separately, given that urban and rural areas are closely interrelated and often have strong and complex interactions on a daily basis. For example, produce grown in rural areas is sold on urban market stalls; people move to the city for work, shopping, health and education; and people leave the city for recreation in the countryside.
