"It is very difficult to distinguish where the city ends and the countryside begins."
This was stated by Haris Piplas, Director of Integrated Urban Solutions in Switzerland, at an event titled "Urban Transformation in Practice: Urban Experiences for Safe and Sustainable Communities" held at the Azerbaijan pavilion during WUF13.
He noted that we live in urbanized agglomerations, and this situation is constantly changing:
"Most of Europe's population also lives in such areas. If you read books explaining how the COVID crisis affected this process, you will see that work and daily life have become more decentralized, moving away from the center. This has made the border between city and countryside even more blurred. It has become difficult to precisely determine where work, leisure, and social life take place."
Piplas emphasized that there is currently a political confrontation between city and countryside in Switzerland:
"People living in cities tend to be more liberal, leaning towards green-left views, while rural populations hold a different stance. Thus, the city-countryside divide in Europe is politically similar to that in other regions.
But in reality, many people in Europe live in a hybrid city-countryside reality."
