Abstract
The advent of a mobile society has led to profound changes in China’s traditional rural-urban pattern and called for new strategies for urban and rural governance. Based on a macro perspective of temporal and spatial evolution, this study analyzes the historical logics of rural-urban governance, explores the geographical patterns of challenges in China’s rural-urban governance, and finally puts forward targeted strategies for rural-urban governance toward integrated and sustainable development in China. From the historical perspective, the urban originates from the rural, and the connotation of rural, that is, a regional-scale outlook, rural-urban relations, and sociocultural interaction, forms the traditional approach to rural-urban governance. China’s rural-urban governance has evolved from antagonism toward integration. In terms of theoretical development, the turn toward mobility is an important driving factor shaping and promoting the transformation of research focus on rural-urban governance. The mobility of urban and rural factors has especially in recent decades brought extensive challenges for governance, which are highlighted by the disintegration of the stability of rural and urban structures, growing regional disparities in rural education levels, and serious aging and hollowing crises in rural areas. We therefore propose that rural-urban governance should give sufficient consideration to the convergence of wider interests; realize social potential through institutional, cultural and spatial restructuring; and attach importance to collaborative development and governance. And the transfer of rural problems to urban areas should be paid attention to by rural-urban governance. This research enriches the knowledge regarding the logics and patterns of China’s rural-urban governance from an interdisciplinary perspective. It is also helpful in the promotion of rural-urban integration and sustainable development, especially at a time when the mobility of social factors between rural areas and urban areas increasingly challenges traditional urban and rural governance and drives its evolution.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Bai X M, Shi P J, Liu Y S, 2014. Realizing China’s urban dream. Nature, 509(7499): 158–160.
Bascom J, 2001. “Energizing” rural space: The representation of countryside culture as an economic development strategy. Journal of Cultural Geography, 19(1): 53–73.
Brenner N, 2004. New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Bulkeley H, Castán Broto V, 2012. Government by experiment? Global cities and the governing of climate change. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(3): 361–375.
Cao L, Tan J, Wei L et al., 2019. Development trends of villages and towns in China. Strategic Study of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 21(2): 6–13. (in Chinese)
Castán Broto V, Bulkeley H, 2013. A survey of urban climate change experiments in 100 cities. Global Environmental Change, 23(1): 92–102.
Chen K Q, Long H L, Liao L et al., 2020. Land use transitions and urban-rural integrated development: Theoretical framework and China’s evidence. Land Use Policy, 9: 2104465.
Chen M X, Ye C, Lu D D et al., 2019. Cognition and construction of the theoretical connotations of new urbanization with Chinese characteristics. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 29(10): 1681–1698.
Chen M X, Zhou Y, Huang X R et al., 2021. The integration of new-type urbanization and rural revitalization strategies in China: Origin, reality and future trends. Land, 10: 207.
Chen Y F, Sun H, Liu Y S, 2010. Reconstruction models of hollowed villages in key agricultural regions of China. Acta Geographica Sinica, 65(6): 727–735. (in Chinese)
Cheshire L, Higgins V, Lawrence G, 2007. Rural Governance. New York, NY: Routledge.
Clark D, Southern R, Beer J, 2007. Rural governance, community empowerment and the new institutionalism: A case study of the Isle of Wight. Journal of Rural Studies, 23: 254–266.
Cloke P, 2003. Country Vision. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Edwards B, Goodwin M, Pemberton S et al., 2001. Partnerships, power, and scale in rural governance. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 19(2): 289–310.
Flora C B, 2015. Rural Communities: Legacy and Change. New York, NY: Routledge.
Ge D Z, Long H L, 2020. Rural spatial governance and urban-rural integration development. Acta Geographica Sinica, 75(6): 1272–1286. (in Chinese)
Ge D Z, Zhou G P, Qiao W F et al., 2020. Land use transition and rural spatial governance: Mechanism, framework and perspectives. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 30(8): 1325–1340.
Harvey D, 2009. Social Justice and the City. Athens, Greece: University of Georgia Press.
He R W, 2018. Urban-rural integration and rural revitalization: Theory, mechanism and implementation. Geographical Research, 37(11): 2127–2140. (in Chinese)
Hering J G, Ingold K M, 2012. Water resources management: What should be integrated? Science, 336: 1234–1235.
Jiang G H, Zhang F R, Chen J W et al., 2007. Analysis of the driving forces of change of rural residential areas in Beijing mountainous areas based on Logistic regression model. Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering, 23(5): 81–87. (in Chinese)
Jin B, Yang W H, Li X et al., 2021. A literature review on the space of flows. Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 14(13): 1294.
Johnson K M, Lichter D T, 2019. Rural depopulation: Growth and decline processes over the past century. Rural Sociology, 84(1): 3–27.
Jones O, Little J, 2000. Rural challenge(s): Partnership and new rural governance. Journal of Rural Studies, 16: 171–184.
Li F, Ye Y P, Song B W et al., 2014. Assessing the changes in land use and ecosystem services in Changzhou municipality, Peoples’ Republic of China, 1991–2006. Ecologial Indicators, 42: 95–103.
Li W L, Li J, 2020. Research on rural goverance system of human province based on rural revitalization strategy. Journal of China Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, 41(7): 255–258. (in Chinese)
Lian H P, Glendinning A, Yin B, 2016. The issue of ‘land-lost’ farmers in the People’s Republic of China: Reasons for discontent, actions and claims to legitimacy. Journal of Contemporary China, 25(101): 718–730.
Little J, 2001. New rural governance? Progress in Human Geography, 25(1): 97–102.
Liu Y S, 2018. Research on the urban-rural integration and rural revitalization in the new era in China. Acta Geographica Sinica, 73(4): 737–650. (in Chinese)
Liu Y S, Li Y H, 2017. Revitalize the world’s countryside. Nature, 548(7667): 275–277.
Liu Z M, Ye C, Chen R S et al., 2021. Where are the frontiers of sustainability research? An overview based on Web of Science Database in 2013–2019. Habitat International, 116: 102419.
Long H L, Liu Y S, 2016. Rural restructuring in China. Journal of Rural Studies, 47: 387–391.
Long H L, Liu Y S, Wu X Q et al., 2009. Spatio-temporal dynamic patterns of farmland and rural settlements in Su-Xi-Chang region: Implications for building a new countryside in coastal China. Land Use Policy, 26(2): 322–333.
MacKinnon D, 2002. Rural governance and local involvement: Assessing state-community relations in the Scottish Highlands. Journal of Rural Studies, 18: 307–324.
Macleod G, Goodwin M, 1999. Space, scale and state strategy: Rethinking urban and regional governance. Progress in Human Geography, 23(4): 503–527.
Mohan G, Stokke K, 2000. Participatory development and empowerment: The dangers of localism. Third World Quarterly, 2(21): 247–268.
National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS), 2021. Bulletin of the Seventh National Census. http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/tjgb/rkpcgb/qgrkpcgb/202106/t20210628_1818821.html. (in Chinese)
Shen H, Tao S, Chen Y et al., 2017. Urbanization-induced population migration has reduced ambient PM2.5 concentrations in China. Science Advances, 3(7): e1700300.
Shi D H, Chen H, Yu T, 2019. Urban resource flow to the countryside and the changes of rural governance-debate on the paths of rural vitalization. Urban Planning Forum, (6): 107–113. (in Chinese)
Skulska I, Montiel-Molina C, Rego F C, 2020. The role of forest policy in Mediterranean mountain community lands: A review of the decentralization processes in European countries. Journal of Rural Studies, 80: 490–502.
Smith D P, Finney N, Halfacree K et al., 2015. Internal Migration: Geographical Perspectives and Processes. USA: Ashgate Piblishing Company.
Smith G, 2010. The hollow state: Rural governance in China. The China Quarterly, 203: 601–618.
Van der Kamp D, Lorentzen P, Mattingly D, 2017. Racing to the bottom or to the top? Decentralization, revenue pressures, and governance reform in China. World Development, 95: 164–176.
Vanolo A, 2014. Smartmentality: The smart city as disciplinary strategy. Urban Studies, 51(5): 883–898.
Wandji D, 2019. Rethinking the time and space of resilience beyond the West: An example of the post-colonial border. Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses, 7: 288–303.
Wang G X, 2021. New trends in migration and urbanization in China: A preliminary investigation based on the seventh census data. Population & Economics, (5): 36–55. (in Chinese)
Wei F, 2020. Rural industry and its social foundation in the integrated urban-rural development process: A case Study of processing in remote villages under the jurisdiction of City L, Zhejiang province. Social Sciences in China, 41(3): 113–130. (in Chinese)
Williams R, 1975. The Country and the City in the Modern Novel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Woods M, 2010. Rural. London: Routledge.
Yang Q, Cai Y Y, 2020. Housing property redistribution and elite capture in the redevelopment of urban villages: A case study in Wuhan, China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 262: 121192.
Ye C, 2021. A Theory and History of Rural-urban Governance in China. Singapore: Springer.
Ye C, Li S, Zhuang L et al., 2020. A comparison and case analysis between domestic and overseas industrial parks of China since the Belt and Road Initiative. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 30(8): 1266–1282.
Ye C, Liu Z M, 2020. Rural-urban co-governance: Multi-scale practice. Science Bulletin, 65(10): 778–780.
Ye C, Ma X Y, Gao Y et al., 2020. The lost countryside: Spatial production of rural culture in Tangwan Village in Shanghai. Habitat International, 98: 102137.
Ye C, Yu J, Zhang Q Y et al., 2021. From governance to rural-urban co-governance: Research frontiers, trends, and the Chinese paths. Progress in Geography, 40(1): 15–27. (in Chinese)
Zang Y Z, Liu S Y, Yang Y Y et al., 2020. Rural decline or restructuring? Implications for sustainability transitions in rural China. Land Use Policy, 94: 104531.
Funding
Foundation: Major Program of National Social Science Foundation of China, No.19ZDA086
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Author
Ye Chao, PhD and Professor, specialized in urbanization and rural-urban governance, geographical thought and method, cultural geography and sustainability science. E-mail: yeover@163.com
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ye, C., Pan, J. & Liu, Z. The historical logics and geographical patterns of rural-urban governance in China. J. Geogr. Sci. 32, 1225–1240 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-022-1994-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-022-1994-5