Governing beyond cities: The urban-rural interface

Abstract

If 70 % of the global population will reside in metropolitan regions by 2050, this poses new governance challenges related to urban-rural interfaces and linkages. It calls for governance that stretches across scales and beyond urban boundaries, taking into account both problems and opportunities of urbanization. This chapter reviews the literature on urban-rural interfaces and linkages and discusses suggestions for dealing with them. It also addresses three governance problems that hinder a more integrated approach towards the urban-rural interface, specifically fragmentation, institutional inertia, and the inability to realize inclusive development. Based on potential governance approaches to address these three problems, we present six institutional design dimensions for a more inclusive governance approach for urban-rural regions. Bridging organizations, nested issuebased platforms, and combining governance with strong government are identified as pathways towards inclusive urban-rural governance.