Built-up area, obviously not a joint in the country (8)
I believe the answer is:
township
'the country' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both locations as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'built-up area obviously not a joint' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'area' could be 'town' (town is a kind of area) and 'town' is found within the answer.
'joint' could be 'ship' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ship' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for township that I've seen before include "Municipality" , "Old manor" , "In South Africa during apartheid, an urban area assigned to black nationals" , "Small community" , "Urban area for non-whites in South Africa under apartheid" .)