Title: From urban-rural to global dependencies

Authors: Hans Westlund; Yuheng Li

Addresses: KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Drottning Kristinas väg 30, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden; JIBS, Jönköping International Business School, P.O. Box 1026, SE-551 11 Jönköping, Sweden ' College of Resources Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Abstract: Against the background of global urban knowledge economy, this paper discusses some of the challenges that sustainable urban life is facing in the global knowledge economy of the 21st century. The paper makes an overview of the fundamental change in urban-rural relations, urban and rural demographics, the concepts of place surplus and place attractiveness, agglomeration and the new economic geography, global threats to long-term urban sustainability and finally the needs of policy visions and strategies for sustainable urban life across the world.

Keywords: urban-rural relations; place attractiveness; urban sustainability; agricultural productivity; global market failure; sustainable development; knowledge economy; cities; demographics; place surplus; agglomeration; new economic geography.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGENVI.2014.064509

International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 2014 Vol.13 No.2/3/4, pp.141 - 149

Published online: 10 Sep 2014 *

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