ABSTRACT
There is increasing appreciation in the social sciences that context is important in understanding social, economic, cultural, political and demographic processes. This chapter sets out the case for a fundamental rethink of approaches towards defining and classifies human settlement and outlines the key messages of the contributions that follow. It provides evidence in support of the statement that spatial context does matter in the study of population characteristics and demographic behavior within countries. The chapter presents the justification for the traditional approach of differentiating between urban and rural, and demonstrates that its shortcomings in handling new forms of urbanization and settlement change. It puts forward for capturing more satisfactorily the principal dimensions of human settlement systems as they are evolving. The chapter outlines the main generic types of alternatives to the simple urban-rural dichotomy, using examples from the existing literature. It also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
