Considerations on Urban–Rural Relationship and Planning Philosophy from the Perspective of Rural Planning in Contemporary China–Discussion on the Existing Problems in Rural Planning Education

Abstract

Following the policies of ‘New Rural Construction’ and ‘Beautiful Village’, the state recently issued a strategy of ‘Rural Revitalization’. In this context, it is urgent for the planning academic circles to refresh the reading of New-type Urbanization policy, and meanwhile, clear up the dialectical relationship between urban planning and rural planning. Firstly, this paper points out that rural-communities are self-organized, empowered by the law, and founded on the collective unit system. Secondly, this paper reveals that the rural land-property-rights is the fundamental system determining the production ability and lifestyle of villagers, simultaneously a key factor for villagers to make individual decisions, and thought to be a vital issue to understand the dialectical process of urbanization and rural development in China. Thirdly, based on recent policy analysis and technology, it indicates that rural planning currently ignores the differences of rural governance characteristic, the implementation of achieving subjectivity, and spatial design from urban areas, especially in the context of the relevant laws and governance structure. This may cause deficiencies in rural planning education, eventually leading to misunderstandings of the dialectical relationship between the new urbanization and rural revitalization policies. This paper not only gives a detailed review about the existing researches in related fields, but also focuses on the case studies of rural planning. Finally, the paper discusses the methods to respond to the aspects mentioned above, and it tries to argue that, rural planning education is one of the significant parts of urban planning education.