Minnesota Rural Urban Connections Project

During the past months, some of our partners have asked for clarification about our aims. They want to know “What do you mean?  What’s different about a Rural-Urban Connections approach compared with our current development frameworks?”  Well, we’re glad you asked and we hope that the following helps clarify our goals.

Alongside colleagues with organizations as diverse as the United Nations and the Rural Policy Research Institute, we believe it is time for a new approach to development. Instead of the traditional competing interests of rural VS urban America, we believe it’s time to recognize how interconnected our interests, needs and futures are.

As Brian Dabson (President and CEO of the Rural Policy Research Institute) writes

… there is a high degree of connectedness between metropolitan and rural America.  No bright lines separate the two types of areas, either geographically or economically.  If metropolitan American is to drive national prosperity, metropolitan areas will need a healthy and sustainable rural economy and culture.  Likewise, if rural America is to flourish, it will surely depend on vibrant, well-functioning cities and suburbs.”

So a rural urban framework is one that holds both types of areas in focus as decisions are made and resources are invested.  A rural urban framework does this because interdependencies between these regions require it.  Rural and urban communities share natural resources, populations, markets, and infrastructure.  Urban communities need food, energy, unique experiences and clean water, all of which come from rural areas.  Rural communities depend on urban consumers, urban jobs, specialized services found in metropolitan centers.

The United Nations Development Programme’s publication “Rural-Urban Connections Analysis” suggests that the benefits of taking a combined Rural AND Urban framework (rather than parallel development approaches) are numerous, including

1. Breaking rural to urban poverty cycles
2. Generating positive rural urban synergies
3. Environmental Sustainability
4. More resilient local, regional and national economies
5. Governance Structures appropriate to spatial realities

Our old ways of planning for either rural or urban areas don’t reflect reality and won’t assist with future growth and sustainability.  Even our dichotomous definitions of “rural” vs  “urban” are no longer adequate.    As Dabson points out:

Despite official definitions that distinguish urban from rural, and metropolitan from nonmetropolitan, the realities of settlement, commuting, and migration patterns suggest a far more complicated interface in which much mixing occurs among urban and rural populations, and rural areas themselves exhibit a great deal of diversity.

International research in the developing world and elsewhere has taken a new focus on the Peri-Urban Interface, the area where urban and rural coexist; Where farming and suburban development, manufacturing and tourism, all co-exist and require careful planning consideration.

Rurb.MN is part of Minnesota’s effort at championing this new, joint perspective; advocating for the combined interests of both rural and urban communities.  This perspective has an established track record.  Below we’ve listed some examples of national and international initiatives that have successfully leveraged a rural-urban linkages framework towards regional development and sustainability.

PLUREL: Peri-Urban Land Use Relationships. It’s a European integrated research project within the European Commissions sixth framework programme. http://www.plurel.net/

CURE: Convention for a Sustainable Urban and Rural Europe http://www.cureforsustainability.eu/index.php?id=5594

Finland’s Northern Rural-Urban Living Lab is one of The European Network of Living Labs, which is an innovation-based initiative aimed at jobs and economic development. http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/northern-rural-urban.html

As you become aware of other rural-urban examples, please post them here on the Rurb.MN blog.

On the lighter and domestic side, Facebook users can visit the “Kentucky Rural Urban Network.”

Finally, here are two articles that can help with conversations about why rural-urban connections are an important area of focus.

The first, Rural-Urban Interdependence: Why Metropolitan And Rural America Need Each Other, comes from the Brookings Institute and is written by Brian Dabson of Missouri’s Rural Policy Research Institute.

To find this article, please visit http://www.brookings.edu/projects/blueprint/whatis.aspx and scroll down to “Additional Resources.”

The second, Bridging The Divide: Rural-Urban Interactions And Livelihood Strategies, reflects an international development perspective.

To find this article, please visit
http://www.iied.org/pubs/search.php?k=Bridging+the+Divide&z=Search