Conventionally, rural-urban continuum proposes a linear depiction of the contrasting natures of social relationships characteristic of rural and urban settlements. This was a popular conceptual tool to classify different types of community and the transition between them. It arose from early 20th century sociology attempting to understand the social changes consequent upon rapid urbanization. Life in the countryside occurred in small, geographically isolated settlements which were socially homogeneous, with high levels of mutual communication and social solidarity, and which changed very slowly. Urban communities were attributed the opposite characteristics: L. Louis Wirth of the Chicago School, in his highly influential essay ‘Urbanism as a Way of Life’ (American Journal of Sociology, 1938), thought cities distinctive because they were large, dense and heterogeneous and that this produced the transient, disorderly, anonymous and formal associational relationships of urban living.

Such understandings had affinities with Ferdinand Tonnies’ a-spatial distinction between gemeinschaft (community) and gesellschaft (association). In principle, if all settlements could be placed on such a continuum we would have a strong account of spatial arrangement influenced social life.

Some sociologists have used the concept of rural-urban continuum to stress the idea that there are no sharp breaking points to be found in the degree or quantity of rural-urban differences. Robert Redfield has given the concept of rural -urban continuum on the basis of his study of Mexican peasants of Tepoztlain. The rapid process of urbanization through the establishment of industries, urban traits and facilities has decreased the differences between villages and cities.

There are some sociologists who treat rural-urban as dichotomous categories have differentiated the two at various levels including occupational differences, environmental differences, differences in the sizes of communities, differences in the density of population, differences in social mobility and direction of migration, differences in social stratification and in the systems of social interaction.

Another view regarding rural and urban communities has been given by Pocock who believe that both village and city are elements of the same civilization and hence neither rural-urban dichotomy, nor continuum is meaningful.