The rural-urban continuum: the destiny of the notion and its link to the spatial mobility of the population
Abstract
The article deals with the evolution, schemes and application domains of the rural-urban continuum concept, with the spatial and, partly, historical variety of its specific forms (continuums, in the plural), and with their types and attributes. The idea is often defined by contradiction, opposing it to a town vs. country antinomy and a sharp separation, both spatial and social. It seems to the author that this concept is a synonym for a settlement system regarded as an uninterrupted field, which саn have various urban-rural proportions and can be studied at different scales. A survey of rural-urban graphic schemes leads to the conclusion that the different versions are complementary, reflecting the evolutionary, multi-scale and gradual nature of the continuum. An analysis of the Western and Russian experience ends with an attempt at a typology of continuums in Russia’s main regions. The degree of complexity and heterogeneity is increasing, from the semi-rural towards the inter-regional or mega-urban type, with interference of different continual fields. The level of the population’s spatial mobility is shown by rough calculations for Moscow and Russia. This mobility makes settlement patterns both continuous and pulsating. In conclusion, some problems of administration, which finds it hard to adopt the very idea of a continuum, are briefly stated.
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References
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