Rural-urban linkages play a key role in both
rural and urban changes and influence
social, cultural and economic
transformation. The aim of the present
paper was to investigate the pattern of
rural-urban linkages of a secondary urban
center in Bangladesh. One urban center and
two rural areas of Feni district were
selected for conducting the study. The
study was based on a total of 384
households of both rural and urban areas.
For the study households were selected
randomly and the survey was conducted
through the questionnaire. In regard to
identify the pattern of rural-urban linkages,
three types of flows namely: population
flows, resource flows and information flows
were used as main indicators of the study.
The results indicate that a hierarchical trend
(lower order to higher order) has been
found in terms of pattern of linkages of
rural and urban areas. The linkages mainly
follow a forward direction (rural to urban)
with little backward linkages (urban to
rural).
The pattern of linkages are influenced by
some sort of factors namely structural
change in economy (privatization) and
structural change in occupation (diversified
livelihood) and improving transport
network, social services and social network
as well. This approach can be applied to
other district in Bangladesh in order to get
an overall rural-urban linkage pattern of
the country.