It is projected that by the middle of this century, the majority of Africans will be urban residents, although with huge variations between countries, as is the case today (McGranahan & Satterthwaite, 2014). Currently, only a small proportion of the region’s population lives in cities and towns, but this is rapidly changing. Thus, urbanization and rural–urban transformations are critical qualities of contemporary societal change in sub-Saharan Africa. The articles in this issue all address these processes and discuss how planning and governance systems are lacking behind in their abilities to address the social and spatial consequences of the complex and rapidly shifting rural–urban connections. Often the concept Rurban has been used to capture rural– urban transformations. The term can be traced back to 1920s’ economic planning literature where it is used to describe land in the countryside on the edge of a town or city. It has been used in a similar vein by researchers studying the peri-urban zone. The term has also been coined by the French philosopher and sociologist, Henri Lefebvre who did not exclusively use the term as a spatial category but also included the social, cultural and political dimensions of rural-to-urban transformation (for a discussion see Brenner, 1997; Lefebvre, Kofman, & Lebas, 1996). However, the term has also been used for policy purposes: For example, during the 2000s by the European Parliament to promote partnerships for sustainable urban– rural development among, and within, member states. Most recently, the Indian Government has launched a RURBAN mission to develop 300 rural growth clusters in order to (1) bridge rural–urban gaps; (2) reduce migration;(3) provide economic opportunity; (4) improve quality of life (For more information see, http://rurban.gov.in/about.html, retrieved 3 August, 2017). However, in this special issue, with reference to the RurbanAfrica project (see www.rurban.ku.dk/), the term is mainly descriptive, while insisting on the need for a holistic approach to rural and urban development. In the following, we will provide an introduction to the special issue. The presentation of the seven articles is grouped under three thematic headlines; (i) Urban expansion and changes in rural–urban land use, (ii) City dynamics: the role of migration, mobility and urban–rural connections and (iii) Social inclusion and access to urban services. Addressing these themes in turn, we conclude the article with a discussion of the connections between rural and urban transformations, based on insights from the RurbanAfrica research and the preceding thematic sections, and related to this, reflections on the planning and governance challenges associated with rural–urban transformation.

中文翻译：

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非洲的城市转型和城乡联系

预计到本世纪中叶，大多数非洲人将成为城市居民，尽管各国之间存在巨大差异，就像今天的情况一样（McGranahan & Satterthwaite，2014 年）。目前，该地区只有一小部分人口居住在城镇，但这种情况正在迅速改变。因此，城市化和城乡转型是撒哈拉以南非洲当代社会变革的关键品质。本期文章都讨论了这些过程，并讨论了规划和治理系统如何在处理复杂且快速变化的城乡联系的社会和空间后果方面缺乏能力。Rurban 的概念经常被用来捕捉城乡转变。该术语可以追溯到 1920 年代的经济规划文献，在那里它用于描述城镇或城市边缘的乡村土地。研究城市周边地区的研究人员也以类似的方式使用了它。该术语也由法国哲学家和社会学家亨利·勒斐伏尔 (Henri Lefebvre) 创造，他不仅将该术语用作空间类别，还包括农村向城市转型的社会、文化和政治维度（有关讨论，请参见 Brenner， 1997 年；Lefebvre、Kofman 和 Lebas，1996 年）。然而，该术语也被用于政策目的：例如，在 2000 年代，欧洲议会在成员国之间和成员国内部促进可持续城乡发展的伙伴关系。最近，印度政府发起了一项 RURBAN 任务，旨在发展 300 个农村增长集群，以 (1) 缩小城乡差距；(2) 减少移民；(3) 提供经济机会；(4) 提高生活质量（更多信息参见 http://rurban.gov.in/about.html，2017 年 8 月 3 日检索）。然而，在本期特刊中，参考 RurbanAfrica 项目（见 www.rurban.ku.dk/），该术语主要是描述性的，同时坚持需要对城乡发展采取整体方法。下面，我们将介绍该特刊。七篇文章的介绍分为三个主题标题；(i) 城市扩张和城乡土地利用的变化，(ii) 城市动态：移民的作用，流动性和城乡联系以及 (iii) 社会包容和城市服务的获取。针对这些主题，我们根据 RurbanAfrica 研究和前面主题部分的见解，以及与此相关的对与农村相关的规划和治理挑战的思考，对农村和城市转型之间的联系进行了讨论，从而结束了文章。 ——城市转型。