Metropolisation and the challenge of rural-urban dichotomies

The challenge of governing metropolitan regions calls urban-rural relationships into question. Rural actors’ silence within it and the blurring of boundaries between urban and rural are still much debated issues. This paper explores the rural perspective on metropolisation processes, considering local actors’ perceptions towards incorporation into a larger urban entity, urban-rural cooperation and the barriers hindering it. Our case investigates a peripheral area within the Italian “National Strategy for Inner Areas” that simultaneously falls into a metropolitan region (Genoa). Adopting a mixed-methods approach, and a rural perspective, we scrutinize i) the material and imagined coherence of the strategic planning (inner) area, and ii) their role in the metropolitan locality-making. Despite a presumed collapse of the urban-rural dichotomy or the two categories, yet the rural exhibits a distinctive identity. However, its agency, even when it is given more voice within metropolitan governance, might be disempowered by colliding policies and internal fragmentations.