The interactions between urban centres and their surroundings – as well as more distant – rural regions include ‘spatial’ linkages such as flows of people and goods, money and information, and other social transactions that are central to socio-economic and cultural change. They also include linkages between different sectors: for example, many urban enterprises rely on demand from rural consumers, and access to urban markets is critical for many agricultural producers. Also, there is a general underestimation in official census and employment data of the number of rural residents that engage in ‘urban’ activities (manufacturing and services), and perhaps even more so of the number of urban residents that engage in agricultural production, either for household consumption or for sale, or for both.

The latter raises the question of what is rural and what is urban. In general terms, most nations define urban - rural as effectively a residential category. But even definitions of the ‘urban’ are not straightforward, and make comparisons between nations as well as, in some cases, comparisons within one nation over time, problematic.

Perhaps the best understanding of the importance of rural-urban linkages and of their significance for economic, social, and cultural change in low-income nations comes from detailed analyses of the livelihood strategies of poor and non-poor groups. These show how most individuals and households straddle the rural-urban divide through increased income diversification and mobility, sometimes involving long-term migration. An important distinction that emerges from this work is that between strategies that lead to the accumulation of assets, and strategies that only ensure the survival of those who undertake them.

While the interest in livelihood transformations in response to changing rural-urban linkages is relatively recent, the interest in the relations between agriculture, manufacturing and services is a traditional concern of development economics. With accelerating urbanisation and growing inter-dependence of rural and urban dwellers on the markets and resources they each offer, rural-urban linkages have become a very important focus in recent years for research and policy relating to local and national economic development, poverty reduction and governance. The emergence of new livelihoods based on diversified income sources and mobility reflects profound social, cultural and economic transformations, nad new forms of resource allocation and use.

The chapters in this book are part of a growing empirical literature on how livelihoods in the rural areas of most low- and middle-income nations are changing. These transformations depend on specific contexts, and on the different constraints on farming and opportunities in non-farm activities. As has been mentioned earlier, generalisations on rural-urban linkages and their relations with livelihoods are, at best, unhelpful, as they show a wide diversity not only between but also within nations and regions.

Rural-Urban Linkages collects the key contributions in the field, covering the conceptual background, the key issues and the current debates, locating different approaches in their wider intellectual and historical contexts. It also includes important recent empirical from all the relevant geographical regions that will be the basis for future thinking. q

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