From this perspective, it becomes ever more imperative today to understand the changing dynamics of the rural-urban interactions and to address the rising challenges that prevent an equitable development of both cities and rural areas. This calls for a new approach to planning our cities and re-examining how different cities can best manage the flow of people, capital, commodities, and information. It also calls for creative solutions for interacting with the rural areas in ways that help them survive the changes our world is undergoing.
Through the sub-theme dedicated to this issue, “Interactions Between Urban and Rural Areas,” EXPO Shanghai 2010 will elucidate for the public that, without a harmonious development of both rural and urban areas, sustainable quality of life in the cities will not be attainable.
Rural-Urban Synergy: A Vital Balance for Development
Rural and urban areas have traditionally enjoyed a relationship of interdependence: livelihoods were made by rural residents who sold farm produce to their urban counterparts, while the resources and demand from rural areas contributed to the prosperity of cities, and so on.
However, several factors are altering the rural-u
rban relationship today. For one thing, the rapid expansion of cities has resulted in an unsustainable consumption of land and natural resources that is placing a considerable burden on rural areas.
In turn, the influx of migrants from rural to urban areas has posed challenges for city administrators, confronted with the increasing impoverishment of certain parts of the cities, causing insecurity and deterioration in the urban environment.
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Lewis Mumford on the rural-urban relationship: “Every phase of life in the countryside contributes to the existence of cities. What the shepherd, the woodman, and the miner know, becomes transformed and ‘etherealized’ through the city into durable elements in the human heritage: the textiles and butter of one, the moats and dams and wooden pipes and lathes of another, the metals and jewels of the third, are finally converted into instruments of urban living: underpinning the city’s economic existence, contributing art and wisdom to its daily routine. Within the city the essence of each type of soil and labor and economic goal is concentrated, thus arise greater possibilities for interchange and for new combinations not given in the isolation of their original habitats.” The Culture of Cities, 1938 |
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