What makes better village development in traditional agricultural areas of China? Evidence from long-term observation of typical villages

By Yurui Li, Pengcan Fan, Yan-sui Liu. Habitat International, 2019

210 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Although China is experiencing rapid urbanization process, village is still the basic socio-economic unit in rural China and could be seen as the cell of the rural system. A profound understanding of the nature of village development has important theoretical and practical values. This study aims to explore what makes better village development in traditional agricultural areas of China based on long-term observation and comparison of typical villages. The main findings suggest that rural elites are crucial actors in the transformational development of relatively successful villages. The success of these villages is based on the integration and coordination of internal and external driving forces, the participation, negotiation and cooperation among key actors, and the formation and development of rural networks with these key actors. These actors, interactions and processes could be theorized as a conceptual model for rural development: the bearing model. This study could help better understand the political ecology of rural development during the transition from urban bias to rural priority.

Subfields: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Political Science and International Relations, Urban Studies

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7914d5c840ff7f8f074ec011caccf6e6ea61985b