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THE RURAL-URBAN
FRINGE
SOCIAL FORCES
202
202
.T.
PRYOR
of Malaya
ABSTRACT
This study is concerned with the rural-urban fringe as a complex transition zone on the
periphery of growing urban areas in Western countries. Case studies of the fringe and related
areas are reviewed, and a definition of the rural-urban fringe is suggested. Further, the urban
fringe is differentiated from the rural fringe, the former constituting the subzone of most rapid
exurban invasion. Hypotheses are postulated regarding the residents, accessibility, and land
and dwellings in the fringe, and suggestions for future studies are outlined in the conclusion.
THE RURAL-URBAN
FRINGE
SOCIAL FORCES
203
Europe
ff.
6 R. J. Johnston, "The Population Characteris
tics of the Urban Fringe: A Review and Example,"
Australian and N et Zealand J ournal of Sociology,
2 (1966), pp. 7993.
7 R. E. Pahl, Urbs in Rure:
Thc iVI
etropolitan
Fringe in Hertfordshire (London: London School
44.
9
With
Special
5 (Assen, Netherlands:
1962).
Royal Van
203
Gorcum,
204
THE RURAL-URBAN
FRINGE
SOCIAL FORCES
204
Study
of Adjustment
to Residence
Fringe: A
Location (Eu
TABLE
1.
THE
RURAL-URBAN
FRINGE:
DEFINITION
Functional Content
Structural Content
Definition
Delineation
Dwelling age
Selected parameter
e.g.,beyond
500
Non-census
areal units
sq. mileof central city e.g.,
control
school, voting districts.
Zoned mixed land use (rural
and urban)
lack of subdivision control
Selected parameters e.g.,
proportion in recent inter
censal period
AND DELINEATION
Definition
Land usc
Delineation
Specific
e.g., market
gardens
exclusively
urban or
rural
:'Ilixed e.g., between limits of
land
Valuation changes
Employment
Population density
Utility services
Social orientation
"Transition, "
dynamism"
ii
AND
DELINEATION
URBAN
PERCENTAGE
DISTANCE
URBAN TO RURAL
50
75
25
/
/
\/
/\
<
/ \
/
\
LAND
100
\
\
\
\
Y=BOUNDARY
OF SOLELY
RURAL LAND
rj p
X=-BOUN DA RY
OF BUILT-UP
URBAN AREA
Press, 1925).
23R. Sinclair, "Von Thunen and Urban Sprawl,"
Annals of the Association of American
phers) 57 (1967), pp. 72-87.
Geogra
of the Fringe
in the Fringe
Distance operates as a major constraint in
shaping and facilitating urban growth, and
the friction of space experienced by the rural
urban fringe is but a particular example of a
principle generally accepted in human ecology
and geography: " ...
the layout of a metrop
olis-the
assignment of activities to areas
tends to be determined by a principle which
may be termed the minimizing of the cost of
friction."il1 This situation is of course com
plicated where there is not one point of maxi
mum accessibility, but multiple urban nuclei,
and where other advantages of residential lo
cation, such as the semi-rural environment in
the fringe, outweigh sheer physical distance:
as Clark and Peters state in a slightly dif
ferent context "opportunities
override dis
tances."32 The accessibility of services is also
Martin, The Rural-Urban Fringe.
3! R. M. Haig, "Toward an Understanding of the
Metropolis: Some Speculations Regarding the Eco
nomic Basis of Urban Concentration," Quarterly
J ournal of Economics, 40 (1926), pp. 179-208
and
30
402-434.
gree, dairying
and fruitgrowing;
by farms
considerably smaller in acreage than surround
ing rural areas; by land values and rates
lower than those of the adj acent urban center,
but rising above those of the surrounding
rural areas as the urban invasion continues;
and by the gradual and irregular conversion
of farm to nonfarm to urban land use.
Most studies of the decentralization of manu
facturing land use have been oriented to "sub
urbs" rather than the rural-urban fringe; how
ever, the fringe area is characterized by a sig
nificant though smaller proportion
of manu
facturing land use than the urban place itself;
by newly established or recently relocated
industries, frequently close to major highways;
and by the presence of noxious, extractive, and
related industries.
Dwellings and allotments reflect a number of
features already discussed, for example, in
come, socioeconomic status, size of house
hold, availability of utility services, and zon
ing regulations such as those controlling lot
size. Lot sizes of residential properties in the
fringe are characteristically greater, in area
and frontage, than in the urban place itself;
families who have moved from the urban center
tend to have larger lots than other fringe resi
dents. Lower population densities in fringe
than in urban areas are a result of both larger
lot size and the incorporation of nonurban
land. Dwelling size, in terms of number of
rooms, is lower in the fringe area than in the
city. The value of dwellings in the fringe area
exhibits both a lower mean and a narrower
range than the urban area itself. Land rates
in the fringe are lower than for the urban area,
but as urban expansion continues there is a
tendency for the gap between the rates, and
hence the attraction of lower rates in the
fringe, to diminish. Conversely, the cost of
the primary installation of utility services,
roads, etc., means that some fringe areas have
higher rates than longer established urban
areas.
A higher proportion of dwellings are fully
owned in the fringe, particularly in the outer
parts of the fringe, as compared with the urban
area; there is a lower rate of renting or
leasing than in the urban area, and a higher
rate of renting, leasing, or being-purchased in
1963).
---.
"The New Community II: Adjustment to
Living in the Changing Rural Fringe of a
Metropolitan Area," Research Bulletin, 955 (Ohio
Agricultural Experimental
Station, 1963).
ARPKE, F. "Land Use Control in the Urban
Fringe of Portland, Oregon," ] ournal of Land
and Public Utility Economics, 18 (1942), pp.
468-480.
267-275.
(1956).
BRIEN, M. L. "The Shire of Croydon as a Rural-
or.
57-66.
HILLER, E. T. "Extension of Urban Characteris
tics into Rural Areas," Rural Sociology, 6
(941), p. 242 ff.
HOUSE, P. W. "Preferential Assessment of Farm
land in the Rural-Urban
Fringe of Maryland,"
Bulletin, 8 (Washington,
DC.:
Government
Printing Office, 1961).
HUFFAKER,C. L. "School Problems of the Fringe,"
in The Rural-Urban Fringe: Proceedings of the
Commonwealth Conference, op, cit.
HUGHES, I. H. Local Government. in the Fringe
Area of Flint, Michigan (Ann Arbor: Univer
sity of Michigan Press, 1947).
JACO, E. G. and BELKNAP, I. "Is a New Family
Form Emerging in the Urban Fringe ?!' Auier
ican Sociological -Revieio, 18 (953), pp. 550-557.
JAUHARI, A. S. "Post Partition Expansion of Pre
Existing Towns in the Sutlej-Yamuna
Divide:
A Study in the Development of Urban Fringe
and Suburbs," National Geographical Journal of
India, 10 (964).
JEANS, D. N. and LOGAN,M. I. "The Problems of
Growth in Sydney's New Suburbs," Australian
Journol of Social Issues, 1 (961), p. 30 ff.
JOHNSTON, R. J. "The Population Characteristics
of the Urban Fringe:
A Review and Example,"
Australiaw and New Zealand Journal of Sociol
ogy, 2 (1966), pp, 79-93.
JONES, F. L. "Ethnic Concentration and Assimila
tion: An Australian Case Study," Social Forces,
45 (967), 412-423.
293 (1937).
--.
1139.
THROOP,V. M. The Sllburban Zone of Metropol
itan Portland, Oregon (Chicago: University of
Chicago, 1948).
TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING BOARDOF VIC
TORIA. Organisation
for Strategic
Planning
(Melbourne: A Report to the Minister for Local
Government, 1967).
\iVALDOA, . D. "Farming on the Urban Fringe,"
in
A Place to Live: The Yearbook of Aarlculture,
Government Printing
1963 (Washington, D.
c.:
Office, 1963).
\iVEHRWEIM,G. S. "Land Classification for Rural
Zoning," Proceedings of the First National Con
ference on Land Classification, op, cit.
---.
"The Land Uses of the Rural-Urban
Fringe," in The Rural-Urban
Fringe:
Pro-
1962).
WOLFE, R. 1. "Nucleation on the Rural-Urban
Fringe," Ekistics, 20 (1965), pp. 228-231.
WOOLLEY, L. Ur of the Chaldees (Middlesex:
Pelican Books, 1938).
ZIMMER, B. G. and HAWLEY, A. H. "Approaches to
the Solution of Fringe Problems;
Preference of
Residents
in the Flint
Metropolitan
Area,"
Public Administration
Review, 16 (1956), pp.
258-268; reprinted in Theodorson, G. A. (ed.),
Studies in Human. Ecology (Evanston, Illinois:
Row, Peterson & Co., 1961).
---.
"Local Government as Viewed by Fringe
Residents," Rztral Sociology, 23 (1958), p. 363 ff.
---.
"Suburbanization
and Church Participa
tion," Social Forces, 37 (1959), p. 348 ff.
---.
"Suburbanization
and Some of Its Conse
quences," Land Economics, 37 (1961), p. 88 ff.