The international conference ‘Rural-Urban Connections in Sub-Saharan Africa’ will be held from 25 to 28 January 2016 at the University of Copenhagen.
The conference addresses the dynamic relationships between rural and urban transformations in sub-Saharan Africa, which is also the focus of the ongoing EU funded research project RurbanAfrica. During the past 5-10 years, there has been a renewed academic and policy interest in understanding how socio-economic changes are intertwined with territorial changes, including new mobilities and complex processes of urbanization. Central to these discussions is considering how societies and people of Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing and responding to these changes; bearing in mind that Africa is the most rural continent while at the same time having the highest actual (and projected) population growth rates, these are crucial questions. These considerations form the catalyst for this conference, which aims to explore how insights and visions of rural and urban transformations are translating into structural changes in agriculture, international and domestic migration practices, rural livelihood dynamics and small town development, changing demographic and settlement dynamics in cities, and shifting demands and provisions of private and public services. The conference will also contribute to broader policy debates in sub-Saharan Africa by examining how documented transformations and trends in African rural-urban connections might have implications for poverty reduction and the ongoing development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
For further information, click here to download the conference call for papers.
Access the conference website by clicking here.
