Definition:
The
continuum of urbanity, also called the urban-rural continuum, is a conceptual
framework that emphasizes that rural and urban areas, traditionally considered
to be distinct and physically separate are now and will increasingly be
integrated at scales ranging from the local to the global. The integration of urban and rural places can
exist along four dimensions: 1) livelihood, or the ways in which people support
themselves materially and economically; 2) lifestyle, or how people sort
themselves into social groups, and how they behave as consumers and actors in
different social networks; 3) long-distance connections—also called
teleconnections—expressed as economic investment, decision making, and the
influences of livelihood and lifestyle along the continuum; and 4) the
characteristics of place, which include the deep and persistent ecological,
geological, and climatic conditions, and the cultural attributes and
perceptions of specific places in the urban-rural mosaic. Altogether, these four dimensions suggest
that the degree of urbanity is not simply an expression of sophistication
associated with city life, but a multifaceted melding of a number of social,
biophysical, and informational fluxes between people and their immediate and
distant environments.
Examples:
The
urban rural continuum is most visible where conditions are changing. For example, the increasing consumption of
meat in Asian diets is associated with lifestyle shifts not only in Asia, but
also in Australia, which has become the piggery for Asia. Changes in lifestyle and livelihood result in
the Australian outback, as do conversion of forest to pasture. One result of the deforestation is to cause
fruit bats, also known as flying foxes, to migrate to cities where roosting and
fruit resources are now more reliable than in the countryside. The teleconnections in this example extend
across multiple continents.
A
familiar example of the urban rural continuum is suburbanization in the North
Temperate regions. Initially a
predominant process in North America, it has long been significant in
Australia, and is becoming increasingly common in Europe. Some examples of Asian urbanization now also
exhibit aspects of suburban sprawl.
Lifestyle changes along urban-rural continuum are supported by mortgage
policy, facilitating the move of economically entitled classes and groups from
old city cores. Transportation policy
and the resultant installation of subsidized highway infrastructure have
permitted the migration of households and firms to increasingly suburban and
even exurban locations. Initially the
flow of workers and the support of household functions was highly gendered,
reflecting lifestyle structure and consumption choices. Livelihood shifts have resulted as employment
has shifted from industrial employment to various kinds of service
positions. Global teleconnections are
increasingly influencing the regional patterns of lifestyle, livelihood, and
the spatial structure of places as jobs, investment, industrialization, and the
role of consumer goods imported over great distances have more and more
influence. These are some of the ways in
which a continuum of urbanity is expressed in urban megaregions in North
America.
Note
that the continuum of urbanity is different from the urban-rural gradient (see http://besurbanlexicon.blogspot.com/search/label/Urban-rural%20Gradient ). The urban-rural gradient is a
methodological approach that orders sites for comparison in the degree of
urbanization as defined by structures or social and economic processes across regions. Urban rural gradients are abstractions that
may be calculated or ordered from data taken along spatial transects.
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Figure 1. The Continuum of
Urbanity. Livelihood describes the kind,
amount, and reward for production.
Lifestyle describes social status and consumption choices. Connectivity includes the movement of things, people, and influences. Place describes the environmental contexts and
resources that exist in the various localities involved in an urban-rural
continuum. Based on discussions at the
Ernst Struengmann Forum, and to appear in Boone et al. 2013.
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Figure 2. A diagram of urban
teleconnections, from Michail.Fragkias.net.
This diagram represents regional and global connections that urban
mosaics can participate in. Such multi-scale
interactions of influence, trade, and population, for example, are a major
aspect of the urban-rural continuum.
Source: http://michail.fragkias.net/?page_id=563
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Why
Important:
The
continuum of urbanity is important because urban areas, of whatever size and
spatial extent, are no longer isolated entities. As the metropolis has given way to the
megalopolis, and the megalopolis in turn, has been replaced by urban
megaregions, so have the boundaries between urban, suburban, exurban, and rural
sites become blurred. Characteristics of
livelihood, lifestyle, connections, and the features of place, are more and
more regionally unified or linked as urbanization has morphed beyond the
classical walled or center city model.
The urban-rural continuum provides a conceptual framework to describe,
study, and compare the hybridity of landscapes that now globally integrate
different degrees and forms of settlement, resource use, economic exchange, and
social control across space. It is no
longer adequate for urban ecology to focus on discrete cities as dense,
heterogeneous settlements in contradistinction with landscapes that have
traditionally focused on natural resource management or wilderness
conservation. Urban values, equity,
consumption, and structures increasingly suffuse all kinds of landscapes, and
people move freely across these mosaics, and influences reach localities from
distant locations, even those continents away.
For
More Info:
·
Boone, C.G., C.L. Redman, H. Blanco, D. Haase,
J. Koch, S. Lwasa, H. Nagendra, S. Pauleit, S.T.A. Pickett, K.C. Seto, and M.
Yokohari. 2013. Group 4: reconceptualizing urban land use. In K.C. Seto and A.
Reenberg, editors. Rethinking urban land use in a global era. MIT Press,
Cambridge. In press.
·
Desakota Study Team. 2008. Re-Imagining the
Urban-Rural Continuum. http://www.i-s-e-t.org/images/pdfs/Desakota%20Aug08.pdf
·
Seto, K.C., A. Reenberg, C.G. Boone, M.
Fragkias, D. Haase, T. Langanke, P. Marcotullio, D.K. Munroe, B. Olah, and D.
Simon. 2012. Urban land teleconnections and sustainability. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109:7687-7692.
