Reflections on urban-rural relationship; a birds [sic] eye view contribution to the urban-rural debate

This paper describes the discussions on a few emerging convergences and divergences in the approaches of urban and rural developments. At first the distinction is made between the urban-rural relationship on the one hand, as a complex of substantial developments, such as densification, sociocultural development, transportation, ecological patterns and structure. On the other hand the emerging soundness of urban-rural partnership is described, defined here as a set of communicative arrangements between actors, under the cover of various existing and established conventions, regulations and other cultural and historic behaviour. The study stresses partnership as the arena in which urban and rural actors operate in concert. The report will show that these terms refer to substantial themes of the urban-rural relationship, allowing to elaborate more specifically the roles of the urban and rural actors in possible partnerships. Recommandations are made - as a contribution to the debate on urban-rural partnership - on instrumental, organizational and institutional incentives