{"title":"Where is the city? Where is the countryside? Assessing the Methods for the Classification of Urban, Rural, and Intermediate Areas in Europe","authors":"Valentina Cattivelli","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103288","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper scrutinises European methods developed since 2010 for identifying urban, rural, and intermediate areas, addressing the need for locally relevant and internationally comparable methodologies. The inadequacy of the traditional urban-rural dichotomy methods in describing peri-urbanisation and the demand for efficient fund allocation and international performance comparisons has driven the proliferation of these methods by European institutions, national governments, and statistical offices. Since a comprehensive study of such methods is lacking, the paper analyses their characteristics (through the variables and statistical techniques used, along with the spatial unit of reference), as well as their local relevance and international comparability.</p><p>The analysis reveals the predominance of a multi-scalar approach emphasising territorial discontinuity patterns and challenging traditional administrative boundaries. While these methods are effective for local policymaking with variables such as demographic dynamics and economic specialisation, they exhibit limited international comparability. Instead, methods relying solely on demographic data demonstrate harmonization, enabling more robust statistical comparisons due to their inherent simplicity.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Rural Studies","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0743016724000925","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper scrutinises European methods developed since 2010 for identifying urban, rural, and intermediate areas, addressing the need for locally relevant and internationally comparable methodologies. The inadequacy of the traditional urban-rural dichotomy methods in describing peri-urbanisation and the demand for efficient fund allocation and international performance comparisons has driven the proliferation of these methods by European institutions, national governments, and statistical offices. Since a comprehensive study of such methods is lacking, the paper analyses their characteristics (through the variables and statistical techniques used, along with the spatial unit of reference), as well as their local relevance and international comparability.
The analysis reveals the predominance of a multi-scalar approach emphasising territorial discontinuity patterns and challenging traditional administrative boundaries. While these methods are effective for local policymaking with variables such as demographic dynamics and economic specialisation, they exhibit limited international comparability. Instead, methods relying solely on demographic data demonstrate harmonization, enabling more robust statistical comparisons due to their inherent simplicity.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Rural Studies publishes research articles relating to such rural issues as society, demography, housing, employment, transport, services, land-use, recreation, agriculture and conservation. The focus is on those areas encompassing extensive land-use, with small-scale and diffuse settlement patterns and communities linked into the surrounding landscape and milieux. Particular emphasis will be given to aspects of planning policy and management. The journal is international and interdisciplinary in scope and content.