Handbook on Rural-Urban Linkages in the Global South

C. Tacoli, I. Agergaard, M.H. Andreasen, D. Brown (eds). Edward Elgar Pub., 2025, 349 pp.

Résumé

The book under review offers a transcontinental perspective on the flows and interactions between rural and urban domains, with numerous examples drawn from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In this volume, the terms “rural” and “urban” are not presented as fixed or sharply defined categories, but rather in relational terms. The rural and the urban are conceived as interconnected spaces within a continuum of economic, social, political, and environmental linkages. In other words, the book adopts a relational and processual approach, rather than a statistical or administrative classification based on a dichotomous view. Tacoli’s position is critical of administrative and political categorizations that portray rural and urban as discrete categories through censuses and public policies. The book argues that such divisions are arbitrary and of limited value for understanding the real dynamics of the Global South, where the flows of people, goods, money, and information constantly cross these boundaries.