The study aims to assess under what social, economic and spatial conditions that processes of urbanization at the lowest level of the urban hierarchy can promote the livelihoods and welfare of residents in small towns. Together with Ola Hall from the Department and colleagues at the University of Dar es Salaam, Makerere University, University of Ghana and the International Centre for Local Democracy the project will study the role of agriculture, kinship relations, local business structure and local governance in urbanization processes that are often considered to be driven by a set of negative rural pressures, rather than the attraction of urban areas. The project combines GIS with quantitative data collection, remote sensing and qualitative field work.