A PERIscope on the PERI-urban

Adriana Allen (a.allen@ucl.ac.uk)

DPU Environmental Justice, Urbanisation and

Resilience Programme

Development Planning Unit (DPU)

Pathways to Sustainability:Agendas for a New Politics of Environment, Development and Social Justice

23 - 24 September 2010,Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University

Panel: Peri-urban dynamics

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2010

PUI environmentalplanning & management

(DFID)Hubli Dharwad (India)Manizales (Colombia)

Kumasi (Ghana)External Support Agencies

General & comparativeresearch

International conference: “Rural-Urban Encounters”

(FAO) Urbanisation &Urban/PU agriculture

Service provisiongovernance in thePUI of metropolitan

regions(DFID)

Mexico, CaracasCairo, Chennai &

Dar es Salaam

DPU’s Peri-urban Interface Programme ‘Journey’

Applied research inHubli-Dharwad, India

PUI knowledgeconsolidation(NRSP DFID)

PUI participatoryplanning

(NRSP DFID)

Participatory actionplanningIn the PUI

(NRSP DFID)(Action networks)

Bra

silia

NE

UR

-DP

Ulin

k(B

C)

EE

Z

PapersDrama, VideoPosters / websiteGuidelines

Book: “A Taleof Two Cities”

NewslettersPublicationsBook

PublicationsRural-Urban Network

Publication /FAO Website

PublicationsWebsiteDialogue foraGuidelines

PublicationsWebsiteParticip. VideoWorkshops

Seminars / Public.

Various ongoing initiatives focused on the co-production ofperi-urban water and sanitation

Why to be concerned?

Living between two worlds• A large percentage of the future population growth in developing

countries will occur in the localised spaces where the urban meetsthe rural as cities and their impacts spread into outlying areas.

…and yet• Current national and international initiatives and commitments to

improve the sustainable development of rapidly urbanising areas inthe developing world tend to neglect the peri-urban context

Beyond the rural-urban dichotomy• The traditional distinction between urban and rural areas is

becoming increasingly blurred and insufficient to capture the realityof a large number of dwellers that live between those areas

…in particular,• an increasing number of the poor, engaged in rural-urban

interchanges as a result of undue reliance on farming, declining realoutput prices, limited markets, price instability, climatic and marketrisks, absence of rural financial markets, declining farm sizes, etc.

Urbanisation without infrastructure

Land conflicts and forced evictions60-70 millions people will have been

evicted between 2000 and 2020

‘Second nature’ versus ‘first nature’?

On definitions: ‘Peri-urban’ as…. the urban fringe: “the space into which the town extends as the

process of dispersion operates ...an area with distinctive characteristicswhich is only partly assimilated into the growing urban complex” (Adell,1999 citing Carter’s 1981 definition).

as a ‘lacking’ area: “usually characterised by the loss of ruralaspects (e.g.: fertile soil, agricultural land, natural landscape) or the lackof urban attributes (such as services & infrastructure)” (Allen, 2003).

a transition zone: “of interaction between urban and rural socio-economic systems; …. a zone of rapid economic, social structuralchange (Rakodi, 1998 cited in Adell, 1999)”.

a new kind of ‘rural/urban hybrid’: “a dramatic new species ofurbanism” (Davis 2004).

a challenging ‘periphery’: subject to “ambiguity, informality andillegality”…But also encompassing unconventional or unorthodoxalternatives to dominant planning and management perspectives.

On emerging landscapes inthe rural-urban continuum…

Towards a space-less city-region? Edge-cities, post-suburban landscapes and the ‘informational city’

Region-based urbanisation: ‘extended metropolitanregions’ (Ginsburg et al, 1991) , ‘ruralopolises’ (Qadeer,2000) and the ‘desakota’ (McGee,1991)

Sustainable urbanisation as ‘reciprocalurbanisation’? From spatial definitions to functional andrelational focus on rural-urban flows

Socio-economicstructure andrelations

Rural economy(sectors)

Rural productionregimes

Non-agriculturalemploymentUrban services

Production supplies

Non-durable anddurable goods

Markets for sellingrural products

Processing /manufacturing

Information onemployment,production, prices,welfare services

Rural systems Rural – Urban Flows Urban systems

People

Production

Commodities

Capital/income

Information

Natural resources

Waste and pollution

Source: Allen, 2003, based on Douglass, 1998:31.

Rural-urban linkages

The ‘Peri-urban Interface’ The PUI is a mosaic of‘natural’, ‘productive’and ‘urban’ sub-systemsAffected by material andenergy flows demanded byboth rural and urban areas.

Heterogeneous andchanging social andeconomic structuresMix of mix of newcomersand long-establisheddwellers.Mix of farming, residentialand industrial land uses.Diversified livelihoodsstrategies

Fragmentedinstitutional landscapeAffected by rapid changeand unclear boundaries andjurisdictions.

On the drivers of change

‘urban and rural economic refugees’ in search ofcheaper residential land and multiple livelihoodopportunities;

conservationists’ who buy bush or farm blocks for re-vegetation or timber plantations;

‘minimalisers’ seeking to establish less materiallyintensive lifestyles with a degree of self-sufficiency;

‘sprawlers’ seeking larger blocks than available in urbanareas, where they can live extended suburban lifestyles

and many more….

On intervention models

Source: Allen, A, ‘Rural-urban linkages: Models of intervention’ in SOFA (2002:90-106).

On planning and research implications

Beyond negative conceptualisations

Maintaining a focus on ‘hidden’ entities

From lacking areas to ‘insurgentperipheries’

Recognising opportunities in hybridsituations

Turning the peri-urban notion inside out