The project deals with the concepts “the urban” and “the rural”. It focuses on places, people, artifacts, mobilities and other phenomena and epherma that typically are associated with the city or – the other way round – with rural areas. Notably two questions become relevant for the project : First, when (conventional) rural elements come to increasingly dominate a space (conventionally called) the city, is the city ruralizing? Secondly, when (conventionally) urban elements come to increasingly dominate (a space conventionally called) ‘the rural areas’, are those places urbanizing? The group aims to collect information on as wide a range of cases as possible that combine elements of the urban/the rural in various ways. Based on these materials the scientists contribute to theoretical understanding of cities and forms of settlement more generally.