ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the social routines of MENA residents from farm to town, village to city. Emphasizing the rural origins of most societies, including tribal and agrarian communities that are too often ignored in conventional analysis, the authors highlight the cultural and economic shifts made through urbanization and industrialization. The unprecedented growth of new urban centers like metropolitan cities has been transformative, but it has also greatly impacted patterns of rural productivity, food security, and migration (both voluntary and forced, as in refugees) in ways that have changed entire societies. The refugee picture is the symbolic, if tragic, encapsulation of the argument: the movement of peoples through perceived boundaries, whether from rural to urban areas or across national borders fleeing gruesome violence, reflects how fast-moving exigencies have outstripped the economic and social underpinnings of their communities.
