Urbanisation in Rural Regions:  The Emergence of Urban Centres in Tanzania

Evelyne Lazaro; Jytte Agergaard; Marianne Nylandsted Larsen; Jeromia Makindara; Torben Birch-Thomsen

doi:10.1057/s41287-018-0185-9

Urbanisation in Rural Regions: The Emergence of Urban Centres in Tanzania

Evelyne Lazaro, Jytte Agergaard, Marianne Nylandsted Larsen, Jeromia Makindara, Torben Birch-Thomsen

Geography

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper focusses on urbanisation in rural regions of Africa, and in particular on the type of settlement growth that occurs not in proximity to, but rather disassociated from, existing urban centres. What characterises such settlements is that they are generally not acknowledged as urban entities, but are involved in an administrative process in which they form part of a larger entity that is about to be given urban administrative status; to capture this process, the concept of emerging urban centres is suggested. The empirical analysis focusses on how rural Tanzania is urbanising. By comparing four different growth trajectories, it is illustrated how settlement growth varies due to different pre-conditions and due to specific dynamics of crop value chains. It is also shown how migration to the settlements and the establishment of businesses are part of this growth and gradually occur detached from the crop value-chain dynamics. In conclusion, it is identified how these developments produce challenges to existing governance systems, and finally it is discussed how the findings provide new insights into debates on rural transformation and the fuzzy distinction between rurality and urbanity.

Original language	English
Journal	European Journal of Development Research (EJDR)
Volume	31
Issue number	1
Pages (from-to)	72-94
Number of pages	22
ISSN	1743-9728
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-018-0185-9
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2019

Keywords

Faculty of Social Sciences
Urbanisation in rural regions
Settlement growth
Agricultural valuechain dynamics
Migration
Tanzania

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1057/s41287-018-0185-9

Cite this

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title = "Urbanisation in Rural Regions: The Emergence of Urban Centres in Tanzania",

abstract = "This paper focusses on urbanisation in rural regions of Africa, and in particular on the type of settlement growth that occurs not in proximity to, but rather disassociated from, existing urban centres. What characterises such settlements is that they are generally not acknowledged as urban entities, but are involved in an administrative process in which they form part of a larger entity that is about to be given urban administrative status; to capture this process, the concept of emerging urban centres is suggested. The empirical analysis focusses on how rural Tanzania is urbanising. By comparing four different growth trajectories, it is illustrated how settlement growth varies due to different pre-conditions and due to specific dynamics of crop value chains. It is also shown how migration to the settlements and the establishment of businesses are part of this growth and gradually occur detached from the crop value-chain dynamics. In conclusion, it is identified how these developments produce challenges to existing governance systems, and finally it is discussed how the findings provide new insights into debates on rural transformation and the fuzzy distinction between rurality and urbanity.",

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