ABSTRACT
Despite early development research including much work on the role of the interaction between cities and rural areas, most contemporary approaches in development studies – both theoretical and empirical – are based on the premise that there is a clear distinction between the urban and the rural (Lynch 2005). However, this distinction has also been challenged. There is research on urban activities, such as wage employment in rural spaces (Bryceson 2002); ‘rural’ activities, such as agriculture in ‘urban’ spaces (Lynch, Binns and Olofin 2001); understanding the interdependence between these two realms (Rigg 1998); and, finally, the livelihoods and resource management issues in the interface between the urban and the rural (Iaquinta and Drescher, 2000; McGregor, Simon and Thompson 2005). There is therefore a need to bring these disparate themes together.
