Urban spaces emerging as nodes and drivers of global capital are recognized as centres of economic growth; while the rest of the geography is consigned to the residual category commonly referred to as ​‘rural’. Diversity and increasing numbers of urban centres do not seem to alter this dichotomous perception of urban-rural landscapes and this dichotomy extends to policies and institutions. Nevertheless, the diversity in expansion and extraction pattern of the urban core is reflected in the way it transforms and interacts with its peripheries, fostering types of interfaces that depict urban and rural characteristics and processes to various extents.