Rural revitalization in China: Towards inclusive geographies of ruralization

• Main Authors: CHEN, Ningning, KONG, Lily
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
• Subjects: China; nature–culture; past; ruralization; rural revitalization; state; Asian Studies; Rural Sociology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3676; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4934/viewcontent/20438206221102933.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This commentary welcomes Gillen et al.'s geographies of ruralization as an alternative to the urban-centered analysis of socio-spatial transformation in post-reform China. We offer three perspectives to further develop such alternative articulation by drawing on China's most recent geographical experiences of rural revitalization. The first is the ‘top-down’ process of rural revitalization launched by different levels of Chinese state agents and how this is divergent from local needs or embedded in bottom-up engagement. The second is the temporal dimension of ruralization highlighting how uses of the past are implicated in and legitimize the state agenda of rural revitalization. The third directs attention to the entanglement of nature and culture – that is, how a harmonious human–nature approach to rural revitalization is produced in discourse and practice. We argue that these alternative insights offer possibilities of developing more inclusive geographies of ruralization in the Global South and beyond.