The Rurban Fringe: A Central Area between Region and City: The Case of Bangalore, India

Abstract

An urban place has necessarily a fringe, a zone demarcating the outer area of what is considered as typically and predominantly ‘urban’. Similarly, a rural fringe is an outer zone of what is considered as ‘rural’. The concept of ‘fringe’ can thus be approached from two directions, and two perspectives: the first reflects the urban view of the immediate countryside, whereby somewhere a zone of mixing exists, while the second looks at the situation from the opposite point of view. Obviously, then, the urban-rural fringe, or ‘rurban’ fringe, is an interesting phenomenon and open to a variety of perspectives.