CHAPTER-2.

0
CONCEPT OF RURAL-URBAN CONTINUUM

2.1 Conceptual Framework:

Rural Urban Continuum is a concept of sociology and settlement geography. The

concept that, the size of continuum varies according to the size of town or city.
This concept suggests that the population size, depends on the population
density and the number of settlement. The continuum at the rural end of the
continuum is envisaged as being close knit, highly stable, integrating and
homogenous in composition. At the urban end it is supposed to be loose in
association, unstable, characterized by great social mobility and has a tendency
for inter-individual contacts.
The continuum is seen as marking a process of social change. Here social change
can occur without any growth of settlement or increase in population, i.e.
through the replacement of an original rural population simply by commuters or
new settler.
It is also possible to find rural societies in urban settings, and urban societies in
rural settings. The association between these two setting is not entirely perfect,
although the continuum concept still has some validity.

2.2 Definition:
❖ Tonnies' (1887) has given the idea of Gemeinschaft (rural) and Gesellschaft
(urban) and discussed the difference between tradition and modernity.
❖ According to Durkheim, David Emile (1893), "Rural community is based
on mechanical solidarity whereas urban community is characterized by
organic solidarity".
❖ According to Maclver, (1917) "Between the two, there is no sharp
demarcation to tell where the city ends and country begins".
❖ According to Gist and Halbert, (1945) "The familiar dichotomy between
rural and urban is more of a theoretical concept than division based upon
the facts of community life".

9
 ❖ Kingsley (1945) has said "the city effects are wider than the city itself".
❖ According to Queen and Carpenter (1953) "there is a continuous
gradation from rural to urban rather than a simple rural-urban
dichotomy".
❖ Mukherjee, (1963) prefers the continuum model by taking the degree of
urbanization as an useful conceptual tool for understanding rural-urban
relations.
❖ Frankenberg, (1966) differentiates rural from urban by means of the
concepts of rate and network. According to him, in urban areas, there is
much greater differentiation of roles and the network of social
relationships is less dense.
❖ Rao, (1970) points out in the Indian context that although both village and
town formed part of the same civilization characterized by institution of
kinship and caste system in pre-British India, there were certain specific
institutional forms and organizational ways distinguishing social and
cultural life in towns form that in village.

2.3 Change of concept of Rural Urban Continuum in different countries:

The idea of rural urban continuum is not developed in recent times. It has long
historical background. The conceptual changes of rural urban continuum are
described in the following table:

Table No. 2.1 Rural Urban difference

Country Name of Scientist year Urban Category Rural Category
England Henry James Sumner Maine 1861 Contract Status
Germany Ferdinand Tonnies 1887 Gesellschaft(Urban) Gemeinschaft(Rural)
France David Emile Durkheim 1893 Organic Solidarity Mechanical Solidarity
England FJerberi Spencer 1896 Industrial Military
Germany Karl Emil Maximilian Weber 1918 Rational Traditional
USA Gary Stanley Becker 1930 Secular Sacred
USA Robert Redfield 1941 Urban Folk

Source: Prepared by Author

10
2.4 Bask Characteristics of Rural areas:
A rural area is marked primarily by a small, sparsely settled, relatively
homogeneous population who are engaged primarily in agriculture (although
there are exceptions to this rule, especially in industrial societies). The traditional
rural areas tended to be a folk society. Robert Redfield (1941) described the folk
society as "a society, which is small, isolated, non-literate and homogenous with
a strong sense of group solidarity. Here human behaviour is traditional,
spontaneous, uncritical and personal. There is no legislation or habit of
experiment and reflection from intellectual ends. Kinship, its relationships and
institutions, are the type of categories of experience and the familiar group is the
unit of action. The sacred prevails over the secular, the economy is one of status
rather than of the market*'. Today, however, traditional rural areas are losing
their traditional culture.
The characteristics of rural areas are as follows:
■ Rural area is based predominantly on agriculture. Land was the basic
means of subsistence. Basically, all rural population were involved in
agricultural way of life directly or indirectly. A substantial part of their
income was drawn from agriculture. All faced common problems,
performed common tasks and shared common helplessness in the event of
awesome natural calamities (floods, droughts etc), which man cannot
control.
■ The rural way of life used to be quite different from urban life, A farmer's
status was measured by his lands, his herds, his crops and the inheritance
he could pass on to his children. Rural people used to be suspicious of
intelligently and bcok learning. Their life used to be simple without any
fun and fair in the modern sense of the term. They used to have deep faith
in religion and duties.
■ The social system in rural areas is marked with minimum of social
differentiation and social stratification. It was mostly based on land and
property relations. These relations determined the share of various socio-

11
 economic groups and the distribution of agricultural wealth among the
various sections of the rural population.
■ There was predominance of primary groups. On the one hand, these
groups were important in the development of the personality
(socialization) and on the other hand they used to exercise primary control
over the lives of the rural people.
■ The farm and rural life have played a long and important role in the
history of human society. The agricultural revolution (mechanisation of
agricultural activities) that came in 17th and 18th centuries has changed
the face of the rural world. Transportation and commercialisation of
agriculture has brought rural revolution in rural sector. Because of
changes in agricultural technology, the rural population is rapidly
increasing everywhere. Moreover, the commercial and industrial
development have also provided rapid urban 'growth. Thus, it is not that
the village is changing in one direction towards urbanisation, but rather
the impetus for change is taking place in village itself.

2.5 Basic Characteristics of Urban areas:

An urban area is one in which a large number of people are engaged in
occupations other than the agricultural pursuits. Such an area has a large,
densely settled and relatively heterogeneous population. The emergence of urban
area has altered human life styles and values. The size, complexity and density of
population urban areas have given rise to new forms of social organization, new
behaviours and new attitudes. Simmel (1950) designated urban life as rational in
the sense that it involves quick logical and calculating reactions. He contrasted
this to the slow, habitual and simple quality of rural life.
Urban life is influenced by the physical and social conditions of urban living -
conditions. These conditions produce impersonality, insecurity and segmented of
personality, which are the general characteristics of urban people (or urban
community). Urban mode of life is quite contrary to traditional rural life, though
it has influenced rural life. This is however in the process of change. These

12
characteristics are represented by the term 'urbanism' and the process of its
expansion is called 'urbanization'.
The characteristics of urban areas are as follows:
❖ The size of the individual urban units is much larger than the individual
rural units. Not only is this, in urban areas, there high density of
population compared to rural areas.
❖ Urban population is heterogeneous. It consists of people of various
occupations in different castes, classes, ethnic groups, religions, etc. They
are not all alike. Urban community is noteworthy for its diversity.
❖ The sheer pressure of great number of population is responsible for
anonymity. Anonymity is a loss of identity. The heterogeneity of city life
heightens the sense of anonymity.
❖ Urban life is dynamic. Social relations are temporary. Therefore,
permanency doesn't develop in urban areas. There is a high rate of social
mobility in urban areas. In America, on an average, a person changes his
job (occupational mobility) within six years. Consequently, his dwelling
(change of residence), also changes. Different types of mobility usually
means transiency of contact. As such, social relations in urban areas
continue for a very short time. Urban dwellers continually make new
social contacts.
❖ In urban life, relations among people are not intimate and kinship based.
Social contacts in the city are mostly personal and segmented. Formal
politeness takes the place of genuine friendliness.
❖ City people are physically crowded but socially distant. Social distance is a
product of anonymity, personality and heterogeneity. Occupation
differences may be even more important source of social distance.
Apartment dwellers may live for years without any acquaintance with
many of the other occupants of the same apartment.
❖ The city/ town is always in a hurry. The life (work and entertainment) of
tire people of urban areas becomes 'clock regulated'. Regularity and
punctuality are the characteristics of urban life. On streets, there

13
 movement is controlled by traffic lights; on railway stations and other
places by elevators and escalators.
❖ Most urban contacts are instrumental, that is we use another person as a
necessary functionary to fulfill one's purposes. They do not interact with
every person but with people having formal roles as postman, bus driver,
office assistant, policeman or other functionaries. So interaction is made
with particular segments of people, not with the all people.

2.6 Dynamic Characteristics of Continuum:

The dynamic characteristics of rural urban continuum are directly made on the
following relations:
1. Agricultural Relations;
2. Business and Financial Relations;
3. Educational and Health Relations;
4. Transport and Communication Relations;
5. Administrative and Political Relations;
6. Social and Cultural Relations;
7. Industrial Relations;
1. Agricultural relations:
Near the urban centers the intensity of agricultural activities is generally high,
and this tendency is decreased with the increasing distance towards peripheral
areas.
2. Trade and financial relation:
Retail trade, wholesale trade and other trade related services located in urban
centers develop relation between the urban and rural areas.
3. Educational and health relations:
The urban centres generally have educational centres in the form of schools,
college, technical schools and sometimes post graduate level educations. People
from rural areas come to urban areas and make a relationship. Relationship also
develops for providing health facility to the surrounding villages.

14
4. Transport and communication relations:
Urban centres act as a convergence point for different modes of transport routes.
Urban centres are connected with transport and communication with the
neighbouring villages. Urban centres also act as nerve centres, of transportation
lines. Roads radiate like spokes of a wheel in different directions from the city
centres. So, a relationship is developed between urban and rural areas.
5. Administrative and political relations:
Urban centres may act as a place of state capital, district headquarter, sub-
divisional headquarters. These centres, pull people every day from surrounding
areas and create relation between rural and urban areas. Urban centres are the
centres of political party offices. People also come to urban areas for political
reasons.
6. Social and Cultural Relations:
Cultural functions, religions festivals, sports and games fall under social and
cultural items of entertainment which are mostly undertaken in urban areas.
People both from urban and rural areas take part and establish social and cultural
relations.
7. Industrial relations:
Industries are mostly located in urban areas or at the periphery of urban areas.
But they receive raw materials from rural areas and labourers from both urban
areas and surrounding areas. Thus people commute from rural to urban areas or
vice-versa. Daily movement establishes a mutual relationship between rural and
urban areas. The zone or belt, where commuters move is known as commuter
belt.

• Salient Points:

This chapter has given the basic knowledge about the sense of rural urban
continuum. It has discussed the concept, historical development, characteristics
of rural and urban areas with their proper identity, and also highlights the
dynamic nature of the continuum.

15