Exploring the rural transformation of the Loess Plateau from a perspective of community resilience: A case study from the Jiaxian County, northwestern China

Abstract

Rural decline has become a global issue in the context of rapid urbanization worldwide. Instability, unsustainability, and vulnerability of rural development are pronounced on the Loess Plateau of western China, which is one of the most ecologically vulnerable regions worldwide. However, this issue has not received adequate attention. Thus, here, the Jianxian County, located in a semi-arid region along the Yellow River to the east of the Loess Plateau, was selected as the study area, to explore the adaptation and development transformation ability of rural communities on the Loess Plateau. A research framework of rural community resilience was established, farmer livelihood transition processes were depicted, rural transformation processes and pathways were identified, and the feedback mechanisms between community resilience and rural transformation was analyzed from 1990 to 2020. The results show that: (1) Rural communities in the Jiaxian County have experienced three approximate stages—agriculture, new agriculture, and non-agriculture. In terms of household type, the proportion of grain-dominant households and grain-dominant with non-agricultural households decreased to 10.4% and 1.5%, respectively. The proportion of date-dominant households and date-dominant with non-agricultural households increased first and then decreased to 0. The proportion of non-agricultural-dominant households was dominant, at 87.9%. The changes in village and community types were similar; both traditional-agricultural and new agricultural, and traditional and new agricultural communities evolved into non-agricultural villages and non-agricultural communities, respectively. (2) Farmer livelihood transformation has led to rural transformation from the bottom to top. During the transformation process, rural community resilience has shown a trend of continuous enhancement, and the growth rate has gradually accelerated. (3) Rural communities with strong resilience against external disturbances have transformed with positive opportunities for development. However, there may be a vicious circle; namely, powerful resilient rural communities usually have more opportunity to further improve resilience, and less resilient rural communities can only choose a single path. Therefore, national policies at the local level play a vital role in shaping and influencing these trajectories. The findings emphasize that only through active integration of internal community initiatives with external policy and administrative mechanisms can community capital be simultaneously enhanced.