Chapter 6
Urban-Rural
Interrelations—A Challenge
for Sustainable Land Management
Alexandra Doernberg and Thomas Weith
Abstract Although the relevance of urban-rural interrelations is widely acknowledged in science and practice, there is as yet no feasible theoretical or theory-driven
approach or model that addresses the multiple interconnections in urban-rural spaces
at the regional level and makes them applicable to actors in policy and planning practice. In this chapter, we give a short overview of how the topic has developed; present
core concepts for urban-rural interrelations; and discuss their applicability and potential improvements by integrating other concepts and connecting governance debates.
In the process, we develop new ideas for the analysis and governance of regional
functional interrelations in a bid to improve sustainable land management.
Keywords Urban-rural interrelations · Land management · Telecoupling ·
Regional governance
6.1 Introduction
For a long time, theory and practice focused on either “urban” or “rural” issues of
spatial development and land management (e.g. rural development policy). Planning
and policy focused on the urban-rural dichotomy, which is also reflected in dualistic definitions and classifications such as statistical and spatial-functional (Tacoli
1998; Dick 2011; OECD 2013). Although scientific discussions have emphasised
the social construction of such spatial categories over the past few years, all practical applications in planning and policy have used this differentiation in the past. In
A. Doernberg (B)
Working Group “Land Use Decisions in the Spatial and System Context”, Leibniz Centre for
Agricultural Landscape Research, Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
e-mail: alexandra.doernberg@zalf.de
T. Weith
Institute of Environmental Science and Geography, University of Potsdam, Campus-Golm,
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
e-mail: thomas.weith@zalf.de
Working Group “Co-Design of Change and Innovation”, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural
Landscape Research, Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
© The Author(s) 2021
T. Weith et al. (eds.), Sustainable Land Management in a European Context,
Human-Environment Interactions 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50841-8_6
101
Urban-Rural
Interrelations—A Challenge
for Sustainable Land Management
Alexandra Doernberg and Thomas Weith
Abstract Although the relevance of urban-rural interrelations is widely acknowledged in science and practice, there is as yet no feasible theoretical or theory-driven
approach or model that addresses the multiple interconnections in urban-rural spaces
at the regional level and makes them applicable to actors in policy and planning practice. In this chapter, we give a short overview of how the topic has developed; present
core concepts for urban-rural interrelations; and discuss their applicability and potential improvements by integrating other concepts and connecting governance debates.
In the process, we develop new ideas for the analysis and governance of regional
functional interrelations in a bid to improve sustainable land management.
Keywords Urban-rural interrelations · Land management · Telecoupling ·
Regional governance
6.1 Introduction
For a long time, theory and practice focused on either “urban” or “rural” issues of
spatial development and land management (e.g. rural development policy). Planning
and policy focused on the urban-rural dichotomy, which is also reflected in dualistic definitions and classifications such as statistical and spatial-functional (Tacoli
1998; Dick 2011; OECD 2013). Although scientific discussions have emphasised
the social construction of such spatial categories over the past few years, all practical applications in planning and policy have used this differentiation in the past. In
A. Doernberg (B)
Working Group “Land Use Decisions in the Spatial and System Context”, Leibniz Centre for
Agricultural Landscape Research, Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
e-mail: alexandra.doernberg@zalf.de
T. Weith
Institute of Environmental Science and Geography, University of Potsdam, Campus-Golm,
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
e-mail: thomas.weith@zalf.de
Working Group “Co-Design of Change and Innovation”, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural
Landscape Research, Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
© The Author(s) 2021
T. Weith et al. (eds.), Sustainable Land Management in a European Context,
Human-Environment Interactions 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50841-8_6
101