Understanding Rural Restructuring: A Theoretical Approach

Abstract

Based on the researches by Woods (2005), this chapter develops the concept and connotations of rural restructuring, and establishes a theoretical framework of that by melting the elements of China’s background condition. Rural restructuring is a process of reshaping socio-economic morphology and spatial pattern in rural territory in respond to the changes of elements both in kernel system and external system of rural development, by optimally allocating and efficiently managing the material and non-material elements in the two systems. It aims at ultimately optimizing the structure and promoting the function within rural territorial system as well as realizing the coordination of structure and complementation of function between urban and rural territorial systems. The evolution of “elements-structure-function” of rural territory has broken utterly the traditional spatial structure and socio-economic morphology in rural China, which triggers rural restructuring and brings about a series of challenges to sustainable rural development. It is urgent for local participants to take actions timely to restructure rural space, economy and society in rural territory system. Accordingly, the approaches of rural restructuring include the three aspects of spatial restructuring, economic restructuring and social restructuring. The interactions between multiple elements and subsystems inside and outside the rural territory promote the process of rural restructuring, through synthesizing and dispersing, pulling force and pushing force, transformation and feedback under the combined action of inducing mechanism, supporting mechanism, constraining/promoting mechanism, guiding mechanism and engine mechanism. Finally, the progress of rural restructuring research in China is summarized.