Agricultural Subsidies and Rural Development

How consistent is a single farm payment system with rural development goals? A new economic geography model is used to compare coupled subsidies to ‘single farm payments’ effects on the location of farming, agro‐industry and non‐farm activity between rural and urban areas. This abstract model features a majority of employment in service sectors, farming vertically linked to manufacturing, and strong preferences for geo‐varieties. It appears that both coupled subsidies and single farm payments can decrease spatial agglomeration. But only the single farm payment policy raises welfare in both rural and urban regions of this stylised economy.     

‘Maize is Life,but Rice is Money!’ A Village Case Study of the2001/02 Famine in Malawi

This paper provides a case study of the 2001/02 famine in Malawi from a village in the Southern Region of the country. Based on in‐depth micro‐level field research, it challenges some commonly accepted views about this crisis. The paper provides evidence that: (1) there was a serious ‘famine’ in the community; (2) the decline in food availability was not the major causal factor of the famine; (3) the early warning system in the rural areas was functioning appropriately and the famine did not happen in ‘silence’, unnoticed; (4) the food preferences of Malawians are not ‘inflexible’; and (5) the famine, contrary to the claims of some of the ‘new famine hypotheses’, was less the consequence of underlying vulnerability and long‐term social or economic trends but, rather, the result of an unexpected and sudden shock, which was generated by the exponential increase in the price of all food crops.     

Human capital,labour market outcomes,and horizontal inequality in Guatemala

With the second largest indigenous population by percentage in Latin America, Guatemala is an important case for understanding horizontal inequality and indigenous politics. This paper presents new analysis of survey data, allowing for consideration both of indigenous and ladino populations, as well as of ethno-linguistic diversity within the indigenous population. Our analysis illustrates both the depth and persistence of horizontal inequalities in educational and labour market outcomes, and a broad trend towards greater equality. Earnings gaps have been reduced by, among other factors, improved educational outcomes. Ethnic groups also show distinct patterns of wages and wage gaps, and there is evidence of ‘sticky floors’ affecting some groups more than others. Our findings suggest that the focus on the indigenous/non-indigenous divide found in much of the economic literature on Latin America obscures meaningful diversity within the indigenous population. We posit that further consideration of such within-group diversity has implications for broader theories of ethnic politics, and in particular for understanding the comparative weakness of indigenous political mobilisation in Guatemala.     

Strawberry fields forever? Conflict over neo-productivist Spanish polytunnel technology in British agriculture

This paper uses the example of Spanish polytunnels to demonstrate how the deployment of ‘neo-productivist’ agricultural technologies to meet the demands of food security and sustainability within a globalised food chain is likely to precipitate greater countryside conflict. Field-scale ‘Spanish polytunnels’ for strawberry growing have become a new feature of the British agricultural landscape. This has been driven primarily by supermarkets searching for high quality and quantity supplies of soft fruit. With production becoming industrialised, conflict has ensued in some rural communities where polytunnels have appeared. Interviews with prominent strawberry growers and protestors against polytunnels illuminate a vociferous and embittered wrangle. Within it, land use planners are labelled as ‘strawberry fools’ by both sides for failing, until recently, to provide decisive regulation to prevent conflict and effect its resolution. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the future characteristics of conflicts precipitated as new agricultural technologies are implemented rapidly, impact unevenly and are received acrimoniously.     

Landscape as a Focus for Integrating Human and Environmental Processes

The landscape has long been an important object of rural policy, particularly in terms of protecting scenic areas. Increasingly, however, landscape is seen as a multifunctional and holistic entity, which provides a framework for the governance and interdisciplinary study of spatial units. A central dilemma in the maintenance of cultural landscapes is that the historical practices which produced them are often obsolete, and new social and economic forces may fail to reproduce their valued properties. Sustainable development strategies therefore seek to instil ‘virtuous’ circles in cultural landscapes, linking society and economy to environmental service functions and land uses, in order to generate mutually reinforcing feedback loops resulting in socially preferred outcomes. We explore ways of investigating these linkages as a basis for future rural research and policy. We conceptualise cultural landscapes as ‘socio‐ecological systems’ (SESs), and consider their capacity for resilience and stability. Noting that resilient systems are characterised, not by simple equilibria, but by ‘basins of attraction’, we argue the need to understand the ways in which SESs stabilise within a particular basin, or move to an alternative. In particular, we reflect on the dynamics of ‘adaptive cycles’ that may lead to changes in system state. Finally, we discuss the development of appropriate models as tools for investigating whether a landscape is trending towards stability within a ‘vicious’ or a ‘virtuous’ circle, and evaluating potential interventions to alter this trajectory.     

适应乡村振兴战略的新型农村住房制度构建设想

在新时期经济社会结构转型和城乡发展关系重塑的背景下,农村住房制度对促进城乡要素流动和助力乡村振兴具有重要意义。本文通过对多个宅基地制度改革试点地区的政策研究、实地调查和访谈,对农民工城乡生活状况的问卷调研,深入分析了我国农村住房发展现状和存在的问题,探究建立适应乡村振兴战略和农村住房需求的新型农村住房制度的意义。基于乡村振兴战略、住房需求层次和农村住房双重属性的理论认识,阐释建立农村新型住房制度的理论意义。从宅基地制度的局限性入手,发现宅基地所固有的成员权属性、福利属性及权能模糊性,是造成制度桎梏与现实发展的诸多矛盾的根源所在。据此,本文提出了构建以满足多层次住房需求的农村住房供应体系及与之相适应的农村住宅用地供应体系为主的新型农村住房制度,并对其影响、效果以及试点实践的可行性进行讨论。新型农村住房制度的建立,为从根本上解决农村住房发展困境,推进乡村振兴战略实施提供可行路径。     

农村收入差距抑制了农户创业吗?--基于流动性约束与人力资本投资视角的实证分析

改革开放以来,中国农村内部收入差距呈现扩大态势,收入差距的扩大对农村家庭产生了深远影响。本文利用2012~2016年中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据,研究了农村收入差距对农户创业行为的影响及其作用机制。实证研究发现,农村收入差距的扩大显著降低了农户创业的概率,基尼系数每提高0.1单位,农户创业的概率下降1.45%,这一数值约为农村地区创业比例的21%,具有显著的经济意义。通过面板数据双向固定效应模型、滞后效应和工具变量法克服内生性问题后,结果仍然稳健。研究还发现,农村收入差距的扩大显著降低了农户创业的参与人数、经营规模、经营绩效和新创企业的概率,并显著提高了创业失败的可能性,增加了从事农业生产的人数和家庭成员外出打工的概率。机制分析发现,农村收入差距的扩大提升了农户面临流动性约束的概率并降低了农户的人力资本投资,从而抑制了农户创业。此外,异质性分析还发现,农村收入差距的扩大对低教育水平、中低收入阶层和中西部地区家庭产生了更显著的负向影响。本文的研究为全面认识农村创业的影响因素提供了新视角,对更好地推动"大众创业、万众创新"在农村的贯彻实施具有政策启示。     

An evolutionary approach to the study of rural tourism: The case of Tuscany

Rural tourism (RT) has moved into a more complex phase and today it is possible to point out different stages of development within European regions. In order to encompass the evolutionary processes of tourism development within rural areas, an evolutionary approach is proposed. If the attention moves from a static analysis of RT within a region, to the transition from a basic rural economy to a new economic specialisation, then the evolutionary economic geography (EEG) may be a useful framework. The EEG explains economical transitions as a shift from a historically predominant configuration to a new one, by the interplay of processes at three different levels: micro (local), meso (regional) and macro (European). The aim of this paper is to adapt the EEG approach to the study of RT. In this paper, the framework is applied to the case study of RT in Tuscany. We argue that in Tuscany the rural transition towards a tourism development was fostered by the weakness of the established rural configuration and its heritage of a large availability of empty buildings, which has been a primary input for tourism development. New trends at the macro-level fostered the transition towards RT, in particular the European funding for multifunctionality within agriculture and urban people seeking for natural life-style.     

Redefining rural prosperity through social learning in the cooperative sector: 25 years of experience from organic agriculture in Spain

In the political system and in public perception, the well-functioning of economy is frequently equalled to the output of the national economic system. However, during the last decades, this narrow conception of economic prosperity started to erode. This paper is based on a rural prosperity conceptual framework that takes into account the systemic nature and dynamics of interactions and impacts within rural systems through the analysis of an organic agriculture cooperative called Camposeven in the south east of Spain. The focus is on rural prosperity, differences in understanding, related parameters and strategies used by the cooperativés farming partners to success without following the traditional conventions of economic growth and farm-efficiency. Experience lessons in this paper demonstrate that the “technical-economic” approach of rural prosperity is not sufficient and results emphasize the important role of individuals’ behaviour as well as the contexts in which they are involved. The findings point to the increasing relevance of expanding both the theory and practice of rural prosperity approaches in sustainable rural development. This is important in order to enrich the connections between rural prosperity and other concepts such as social capital, innovation, social learning and resilience.     

Rural Economies and Transitions to Capitalism: Germany and England Compared (c.1200–c.1800)

Based on a synthesis of the empirical scholarship on England and Germany, this paper demonstrates that in both regions, rural socio‐economic developments from c.1200 to c.1800 are similar: this period witnesses the rise to numerical predominance and growing economic significance of the ‘sub‐peasant classes’, which had a growing impact on the market as a result of their increasing market dependence, and from which – towards the end of the period – a rural proletariat emerged. Against the influential theory of Robert Brenner, it is argued that the period c.1200–c.1400 cannot really be categorized as ‘feudal’ according to Brenner's definition; and ‘agrarian capitalism’ does not adequately describe the socio‐economic system that obtained by the end of the sixteenth century. A genuine transition to capitalism is only evident from after c.1750, and can be found in Germany as well as in England; it is predicated both on ideological shifts and on the evolution of the rural proletariat, which is only found in large numbers by or after c.1800.     

Is Oil Palm Expansion a Challenge to Agroecology? Smallholders Practising Industrial Farming in Mexico

Agroecology has become a powerful alternative paradigm for rural development. In contrast to conventional approaches, this paradigm shifts the emphasis from technology and markets to local knowledge, social justice and food sovereignty, to overcome rural poverty and environmental degradation. However, the spread of this approach faces several obstacles. This paper deals with one of these obstacles: the ‘preference’ of smallholders for industrial farming. We specifically analyse the widespread uptake up of oil palm by smallholders in Chiapas. Contrary to agro‐ecological assumptions, oil palm proved favourable to smallholders in Chiapas because of historical and contemporary state–peasant relations and the advantageous economic circumstances within the oil palm sector. Based on this research, we identify four challenges for agroecology: (i) the existence of contradictory interests within the peasantry as a result of social differentiation; (ii) the role of the state in making conventional development models relatively favourable to smallholders; (iii) the prevalence of modernization ideologies in many rural areas; and (iv) the need for this paradigm to acknowledge smallholders' agency also when engaged in industrial farming. These challenges need to be tackled for agroecology to offer viable alternatives in a context of agro‐industrialization.     

着力提升新生代产业工人就业质量的思考

随着我国农村城镇化、产业化以及城乡一体化进程不断向纵深推进,越来越多的农村和城镇新生劳动力加入产业工人行列。作为社会的新生力量——新生代产业工人的就业问题引起了党中央和国务院的高度重视。一系列促进就业和创业的政策措施不断出台和落实,使得新生代产业工人的就业问题得到一定程度地解决,但就业质量依然不容乐观。为此,文章在扼要阐释就业质量涵义的基础上,着力分析新生代产业工人就业质量成因,并就增强其就业能力,提高就业质量,实现体面地工作,从公共行政的角度,提出一些措施。     

An assessment of farmers’ satisfaction with land consolidation performance in China

Rural land consolidation has been a very important and efficient development tool all over the world for a century and is now an indispensable instrument for rural sustainable development in China. The Chinese central government has devoted large sums of money to rural consolidation projects each year in an effort to help protect cultivated land, to improve agricultural production, to enhance the socio-economic development of rural communities, and to help build rural landscapes. However, little attention has been paid to evaluating the performance of land consolidation projects from the view of community members, which is sorely needed. Household satisfaction with land consolidation projects is a key indicator of consolidation performance. Understanding the factors that influence household satisfaction is an effective way of dealing with problems in the interactions between land restructuring and human behaviors in rural areas and can help improve project performance. This paper examines the performance of land consolidation in terms of rural households’ levels of satisfaction in rural China and analyses the most influential factors of satisfaction. Data were gathered via questionnaires and analyzed with a probit model. Results indicated three significant points. First, overall satisfaction rate was 76.5%, meaning that most rural households in the regions of Hangzhou, Changsha, and Guiyang were satisfied with land consolidation projects. Second, 11 factors significantly affected rural residents’ satisfaction with consolidation. These factors included farmers’ level of education, employment characteristics, family size, input level of agricultural production, agricultural produce transportation methods, level of agricultural mechanization, the characteristics of land transfer in the village and within their own families, the perceived importance of land consolidation, their level of social insurance support, and their participation in rural production cooperatives. Third, six of these factors had positive effects on performance; four had negative effects, and one (employment characteristics) demonstrated a significant influence.     

乡村振兴:农村转型、结构转型和政府职能

农村发展过程有其共性规律和区域差异。本文首先以亚洲主要国家为例,分析了农村转型和结构转型存在的共性问题及其与农村发展的关系;其次基于40年中国农村发展改革经验,分析了农村转型路径与转型效果以及与农村转型各阶段相适应的的制度安排、政策支持和投资重点;基于以上分析,本文提出在乡村振兴过程中,要加速农村转型速度,促进高值农业发展和农民增收;加速结构转型速度,促进农村劳动力非农就业和农业劳动生产率的大幅提升;要转变政府职能,通过制度创新、政策创新和投资创新,加快农村转型和结构转型,促进乡村振兴战略的顺利实施;不同地区加速农村转型不能搞一刀切;同时也提出未来需要深入研究的重大理论和政策问题。     

“十四五”时期农村劳动力就业:形势展望、结构预测和对策思路

“十四五”时期,世界处于百年未有之大变局深度演化期,我国农村劳动力就业形势更加复杂,困难和挑战前所未有.供给层面,农村劳动力的规模、结构和意愿显著变化.需求层面,全球化巨大的不确定性增加了就业红利减少的风险,城镇产业新旧动能转换可能导致摩擦性和结构性失业,农村就业承载力和就业空间也迎来调整.综合人口增长和城镇发展态势,...     

Is it Possible to Utilise the Agricultural Potential of Ukraine under the Current Agrarian System?

The government of Ukraine aims to transform the country into an ‘agricultural superpower at the international level’ with the hope that the sector will gain high foreign currency earnings and become ‘the engine of national economic development’. The large agribusiness corporations have willingly responded to these calls. However, placing hope solely in the corporate sector is inadequate as the key role of agriculture to create business diversity and achieve rural social and environmental objectives will remain unfulfilled. Many other national economies have experienced ‘the offensive’ of capital on agriculture during the twentieth century, with associated negative consequences, thus encouraging them to adopt more balanced agrarian policies which benefit the whole rural population. Utilisation of Ukrainian agricultural potential as an economic growth engine requires a fundamental change in the interpretation of its purpose, which is currently focused on profit‐making export‐oriented commercial activity. The multifunctional nature of the sector needs to be emphasised, the purpose of which is not only the production of agricultural and food products, but also the creation of public benefits, such as the development opportunities and means for existence for 14 million Ukrainian rural inhabitants, maintenance of ecological balance, regeneration of soil fertility and preservation of rural landscapes.     

MGNREGA in Tamil Nadu: A Story of Success and Transformation?

Social protection has emerged as a key driver of development policy at the beginning of the twenty‐first century. It is widely considered a ‘good thing’ that has the potential not only to alleviate poverty and vulnerability, but also to generate more transformative outcomes in terms of empowerment and social justice. Based on an ethnographic study of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), India's flagship social protection policy, this paper takes a critical look at what this policy's ‘success’ consists of. The study was carried out in Tamil Nadu, a state widely presented as a ‘success’ in terms of MGNREGA's implementation, and describes who participates in the scheme and how success is understood and expressed at different social and bureaucratic levels. In terms of MGNREGA's outcomes, we conclude that the scheme is benefitting the poorest households – and Dalits and women in particular – especially in terms of providing a safety net and as a tool for poverty alleviation. But the scheme does more than that. It has also produced significant transformative outcomes for rural labourers, such as pushing up rural wage levels, enhancing low‐caste workers' bargaining power in the labour market and reducing their dependency on high‐caste employers. These benefits are not only substantial but also transformative in that they affect rural relations of production and contribute to the empowerment of the rural labouring poor. However, in terms of creating durable assets and promoting grassroots democracy, the scheme's outcomes are much less encouraging.     

Decent rural employment and farm production efficiency: empirical evidence from Tanzania and Ethiopia

Promoting decent rural employment, by creating new jobs in rural areas and upgrading the existing ones, could be one of the most efficient pathways to reduce rural poverty. This article systematically investigates the impact of decent rural employment on agricultural production efficiency in Ethiopia and Tanzania. The analysis applies an output‐oriented distance function approach with an estimation procedure that accounts for different technological, demographic, socioeconomic, institutional, and decent rural employment indicators. Data of the 2011 round of Living Standards Measurement Study‐Integrated Surveys on Agriculture for the two countries are used, and a set of indicators is derived to proxy core dimensions of decent rural employment. The findings of our analysis show that decent rural employment contributes to agricultural production efficiency.     

Rural decline or restructuring? Implications for sustainability transitions in rural China

With the increase in climate change and increasing social concerns about environmental deterioration, sustainability has become a hot topic in both natural and social research. Nowadays, sustainable cities are one of the focal points, while rural areas have been disregarded. In fact, rural areas have been suffering from environmental degradation for decades. Thus, sustainability transitions in both urban and rural areas should be given commensurate emphasis. In this paper, we provide an overview of rural evolution worldwide and attempt to explore alternative approaches for enhancing rural sustainability. As depicted in the literature, rural evolution is multifaceted. For a long time, depopulation and demographic aging have been like chronic diseases torturing rural areas. Although there were some bright spots of rural repopulation and economic restructuring, they were not mainstream of rural development. Based on the existing research, we established a conceptual framework and analyzed the rural evolution paradigm from a geographic perspective. We found that rural composition determined rural architecture, while rural architecture affected rural functioning. Changes in rural functioning formed the rural evolution trend. Since rural development was also influenced by external factors, both self-organization and governmental intervention were found to be alternative approaches to guiding rural transitions. We took the case study of Tengtou village to exemplify the sustainable pathways of a rural transition. The case study indicated that national policies were the fundamental impetus for rural transformation, while self-organization played a more important role. We hope that our study will shed new light on policy orientations and rural transitions.     

中国“淘宝村”研究:一个文献综述

"淘宝村"是新阶段中国农村电子商务发展的典型产物,相关学术研究尚处于发端与初探阶段,但其研究热度正在快速提升。已有文献散布于不同学科属性的期刊中,研究方法以案例研究和定性论述为主,研究主题集中在"淘宝村"现象的空间分布特征、成因及演化机理、发展模式与转型升级、经济社会效应等方面。未来研究可重点着力于以下方面:一是关注中西部地区和民族地区的"淘宝村",二是评估和比较不同发展模式的影响效应,三是加强对"淘宝村"农户组织化的研究,四是深入研究农户网店的经营行为及绩效,五是拓展"淘宝村"现象的经济社会效应研究。