Rural transformations in the context of changing rural-urban connections: The case of Njombe Town, Southern Highlands of Tanzania, and its rural hinterlands

TY - CONF

T1 - Rural transformations in the context of changing rural-urban connections

T2 - Rural-Urban Connections in Sub-Saharan Africa, At Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management - University of Copenhagen

AU - Birch-Thomsen, Torben

AU - Ørtenblad, Sinne Borby

AU - Msese, Lukelo

AU - Mishili, Fulgence

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - Similar to many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania has within the past two decades experienced general economic growth and commercialisation and monetisation across sectors, including commercialisation of agricultural activities, as well as an improved investment environment. Moreover, the infrastructure, including road systems and means of communication, has in general increased and improved. This development has among a number of other things caused changing patterns of mobility. These changes are highly interrelated and connected to changing rural-urban linkages, which include flows of people, capital, resources, agricultural commodities, goods, services, technology and information, between rural and urban locations. We emphasize that the rural-urban connections go beyond the spatial dichotomy and that the linkages often occur in a dynamic rural-urban continuum. Influenced by these changes, this paper sets out to elucidate patterns and dynamics of rural transformation in Tanzania in the context of changing rural-urban linkages by presenting data from a particularly dynamic region; namely Njombe Region in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Based on fieldwork conducted during 2014 and 2015, involving household and key informant interviews, focus group discussions and livelihood surveys, the paper gives examples of how the transformations are manifested in this dynamic region, through a broader, regional level lens, as well as through emphasizing and illustrating local and spatial variations, including differences in opportunities and challenges (e.g. differences in natural, physical and technological assets such as access to land, infrastructure, agricultural technology and investment patterns). We acknowledge the complexity of the tendencies and causalities of the rural transformations and find that they are expressed differently at the local level due to these different contexts in which the rural settings are embedded. The paper shows how the degree of rural-urban connections and the rural transformations influence the livelihoods of the rural dwellers, including mobility patterns and socioeconomic mobility.

AB - Similar to many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania has within the past two decades experienced general economic growth and commercialisation and monetisation across sectors, including commercialisation of agricultural activities, as well as an improved investment environment. Moreover, the infrastructure, including road systems and means of communication, has in general increased and improved. This development has among a number of other things caused changing patterns of mobility. These changes are highly interrelated and connected to changing rural-urban linkages, which include flows of people, capital, resources, agricultural commodities, goods, services, technology and information, between rural and urban locations. We emphasize that the rural-urban connections go beyond the spatial dichotomy and that the linkages often occur in a dynamic rural-urban continuum. Influenced by these changes, this paper sets out to elucidate patterns and dynamics of rural transformation in Tanzania in the context of changing rural-urban linkages by presenting data from a particularly dynamic region; namely Njombe Region in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Based on fieldwork conducted during 2014 and 2015, involving household and key informant interviews, focus group discussions and livelihood surveys, the paper gives examples of how the transformations are manifested in this dynamic region, through a broader, regional level lens, as well as through emphasizing and illustrating local and spatial variations, including differences in opportunities and challenges (e.g. differences in natural, physical and technological assets such as access to land, infrastructure, agricultural technology and investment patterns). We acknowledge the complexity of the tendencies and causalities of the rural transformations and find that they are expressed differently at the local level due to these different contexts in which the rural settings are embedded. The paper shows how the degree of rural-urban connections and the rural transformations influence the livelihoods of the rural dwellers, including mobility patterns and socioeconomic mobility.

M3 - Paper

Y2 - 25 January 2016 through 28 January 2016

ER -