Acknowledgements
To SCE, SUCH, and to Mikey D.O.N and Junior Disprol for their relentless work ethic.
Rurbanisation/Urbalisation
Recent years have seen the development of the ‘urban versus rural’ debate across the fields of human geography, planning, architecture and urban design evolve into a more intrinsic narrative concerning these two environments. The binary thinking that urban signified dense, manmade construction, fabricated structures, complex infrastructure and buildings that made up town and cities, whilst rural related to characteristics of the countryside and natural world has been challenged (see Stringer 2018 and Woods 2011). Neil Brenner has argued that seascapes and oceanic terrains, and his edited collection Implosions/Explosions: Towards a Study of Planetary Urbanization furthers Lefebvre’s 1970 hypothesis for a complete urbanisation of society.
The spatio-geographic ontologies that comprise planetary descriptions of space and place are explored by planners, architects, geographers and urban designers much in recent thought. Yet often, this thinking relates to the takeover of rural space by urbanism – triggered by the continual expansion of capitalism – as invasion, and rural interventions in urban space as reclamation. Urban sprawl is necessary for capitalism to continue its multifarious consumption of the planet, while increasing the presence of rurality is needed within conurbations in an attempt to reinvigorate natural life, contribute to addressing the climate crisis, and instil a sense of connection to the natural world.
Ben Stringer’s edited collection Reimagining Rurality brought together: “an exhibition of artworks, architecture and media productions by leading artists, architects, TV producers etc. whose work interrogates contemporary meanings of ‘rurality’”, which dovetailed into an international and interdisciplinary academic conference. Each author presented a perspective on new thoughts about the rural; my presentation and subsequent chapter explored the rurbanised nomadic DJ as they navigate fragments of rural in the city.
Rurban Revolution define rurbanisation as: “the process of increasing the presence of green space and or agriculture in towns and cities: a ruralisation of the urban” What is rurbanisation? | Rurban Revolution (lancaster.ac.uk). In contrast (but to some extent complementary), I would define urbalisation as:
processes that increase the presence of urbanity in rural contexts through representations: an urbanisation of the rural.
What does rurbanisation and urbalisation suggest when focused through the lens of hip hop culture, or rather, what can hip hop tell us about rurbanisation and urbalisation? I would argue that in hip hop, representations of rurbanisation and urbalisation are symbiotic; this is especially clear where rural hip hop dwells. Graffiti is perhaps the strongest vehicle to evidence this, the presence of hip hop through graffiti practice in a rural setting cannot be denied within the image below.
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