DFG Research Unit FOR5903

Human societies constitute complex forms of social organisation as reflected in the diverse settlement patterns that they have produced worldwide over time. City limits draw arbitrary boundaries between an (urban) interior under strong human control and a (rural) exterior more subject to biophysical processes. In reality, both spaces have always been closely linked, and with intensifying use of natural resources, rural-urban transformation processes increasingly become their characteristic determinants. In the Anthropocene, urbanisation and its associated social and ecological changes have reached global dimensions. "The rural" and "the urban" enter into multiple relationships at different scales, becoming an often self-organising entity of great scientific, social, and political significance. The proposed Research Unit “Sustainable Rurbanity” (FOR5903) addresses this phenomenon, and analyses it as a state of being and becoming constantly re-inventing and restructuring itself. Guided by three overarching hypotheses, 10 projects of the Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities userurban areas in India, West Africa, and the Northwestern Maghreb to investigate mechanisms of transformation, consequences, and governance processes of rurbanity. An interdisciplinary, social-ecological systems approach combined with ideas from assemblage thinking allows for creating synergies between disciplinary cultures and different scientific disciplines, including perspectives from the Global South. This common framework is a prerequisite for linking contextual empirical research to theory-driven analytical comparisons, and for using innovative methods of systems analysis and synthesis of results. Our approach understands rural-urban transformation and the derived phenomenon of rurbanity in its complexity across scales and regions, and assesses its key implications for sustainable land use and societal development.