Rethinking cities in rural transformation: The role of territories

A large majority of the world’s population lives in territories that are made up of both rural and urban localities, bound together by linkages that generate distinct spaces with sociallyconstructed identities. The rural – urban dichotomy, with its focus on separate localities whether rural or urban, is increasingly less useful to understand or sustain the development of territories that spread out across both worlds and are distinct from both. Deconstructing the rural-urban binary would improve both rural and urban research and development.