Deconstruction of Rural-Urban Divide in New Tools Prospective

Abstract

In this essay importance will be given to the traditional and contemporary conception of the rural-urban divide. The traditional approach influenced by a hegemonic perspective has seen rural as urban residual by believing in the idea of a clear division between urban and rural, driven by demographic, cultural and economic factors. But today's empirical research in different fields, reflecting strong local and global dynamics, proves that the split between rural and urban is impossible. The change of these realities at the local and global scale has influenced the development of a thesis that reformulates the urban/rural relation under the perspective of a continuum, hybrid or liminal state. Today's urban research backs the idea that it is impossible to define once and for all what is rural and urban. Concrete cases taken in Europe and in Albania prove that the existence of realities with particular typology not only makes the existence of a general and universally accepted definition problematic, but also creates the need for a continuous, dynamic, and temporary re-definition of urban and rural.