Planning the “Ruralopolis” in India: Circular Migration, Survival Entrepreneurship, and the Subversive Non-Farm Economy

Abstract

Urban research has scarcely investigated the planning context of the “ruralopolis”—poor and predominantly agrarian regions of the Global South with very high population densities. Today, some of these regions are urbanizing, in the sense that elements of urbanism beyond density, such as a large non-farm economy, are emerging. This paper uses a case study of an Indian district in Bihar to investigate urbanizing ruralopolis settlements. I identify and discuss the planning implications of three distinctive features of their urbanization: circular out-migration, a non-farm economy rooted in consumption and survival entrepreneurship, and shifts in agrarian social hierarchies that present progressive possibilities.