Social capital for rural revitalization in China: A critical evaluation on the government’s new countryside programme in Chengdu

In the context of urbanisation and decline of its countryside in the 21^st century, the Chinese government has initiated a campaign namely “building a socialist new countryside” in 2006 which is now renamed as “rural revitalisation”. Bringing together social capital, government intervention and other capital, we argue that rural revitalisation can be viewed as a process of the interaction between land transfer and community building leading to multiple gains of all stakeholders. Given the predomination of top-down government intervention and external capital investment in its campaign, this paper sheds new light on social capital in terms of not only mobilising community members’ participation, but also reaching a balance with interests of government and other stakeholders. The importance of social capital can be illustrated from critical evaluation on governmental pilot projects in the suburban zone of Chengdu, a model municipal in China in urban-rural integration. In particular, this paper aims to address the following questions: How does social capital engage and contribute to rural restructuring for sustainable rural livelihoods? What role can social capital play in the decision making of land transfer and community building? This paper contributes to rural revitalisation and land use debates in three aspects. Firstly, we post a triangular model by bringing together government intervention, social and other capital to emphasize the interwoven nature of the relationship between land transfer and community building for better understanding of the intrinsic dynamics within the communities and their interests interfaced with external stakeholders. Secondly, with respect to the impact of land transfer on sustainable livelihoods, we propose an evaluation framework to account and compare the roles of social capital against government intervention and other conditions in land transfer decision making. Thirdly, applying the above framework to sample villages, we identify three types of rural restructuring: government-led, farmer self-organising, and returned entrepreneur-oriented. Policy implications and further research direction are discussed.     

Factors influencing technological practices in the Brazilian agrarian reform

In recent decades, agriculture has responded to technology-related changes with strong productivity growth. Despite this evolution, the adoption of new technologies by small farmers has been a consistent challenge. In the coming years, the adoption of technology should be an essential element for the survival of small producers. To follow this evolution, the objective of this research is to identify factors that influence the adoption of higher levels of technological practices by producers of the agrarian reform in the Midwestern region of Brazil. Technological practices were evaluated based on the adoption of natural or chemical inputs, crop rotation, high yield seeds and mechanization. Higher levels of technological practices were defined as the joint use of these technologies, classified as technological packages. We identified two technological packages, one using natural inputs and the other chemical inputs. Questionnaires were applied to 1,162 settlers and the analytical model used was an ordered logit. Education, technical assistance and exchange experience with neighbors have a positive effect on technology use but do not favor the use of technological packages, which are instead favored by training courses in technology, partnerships with agro-food companies and resources available for investment. Thus, the government’s priority should be to offer good technical support and access to training courses in technology. The financing of production costs did not show any effect on the adoption of technology, in contrast to funding for investments. Consequently, the financing of production costs should be reconsidered to favor greater technological investments.     

Emotional responses toward Tourism Performing Arts Development: A comparison of urban and rural residents in China

In contrast to the substantial work on resident perceptions toward tourism development, relatively little is known about residents' emotional responses. By applying cognitive appraisal theory, this study aims to identify the causes and consequences of resident emotions toward Tourism Performing Arts (TPA) developments across urban and rural communities. Based on a quota sampling method, surveys of 438 and 435 residents were undertaken in two typical urban (Hangzhou) and rural (Yangshuo) TPA destinations in China. Results revealed that rural residents reported a higher intensity of positive emotions and were more supportive towards TPA development. Positive emotions (i.e., happy, loving and grateful) for rural and urban residents were elicited by outcome desirability, fairness, and coping potential whereas negative emotions were generated differently. Complex emotions, rather than specific emotions were found to be related behavioral intentions towards TPA development. Findings suggest targeted strategies such as promoting TPA in urban communities and offering preferential local access for rural communities.     

Relationships among sustainability dimensions: evidence from an Alpine area case study using Dominance-based Rough Set Approach

The study provides a useful tool to enable local decision makers to define territorial sustainable policies. For this purpose, using selected indicators, we analyse, at the municipal level, the behaviour of and interactions among the socio-demographic, environmental, economic, and accessibility dimensions in two northern Italian provinces in the Alpine Chain (NUTS3), which are identified by the EU as predominantly rural areas. We adopt the dominance-based rough set approach, which allows for the discovery of hidden patterns among the data by means of the generation of decision rules. The population variation over time and number of foreign citizens are the decision attributes considered together with condition attributes belonging to the socio-demographic, environmental, economic, and accessibility dimensions. Our selected areas (rural, mountainous, and peripheral) present various facets at the sustainability level, largely due to their complexity, which was confirmed by the rules we found. Moreover, the socio-demographic and accessibility attributes are more commonly present in the rules and a low interaction characterizes the four dimensions. Finally, economic growth is often at odds with environmental sustainability.     

Information communications technology and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: A panel data approach

This research empirically analyzed the impact of mobile phone and the Internet on per capita income of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for the period of 2006–2015 using a panel data of 40 countries. We have employed the robust two-step system GMM. Results showed that growth in mobile phone penetration has contributed significantly to the GDP per capita of the region after controlling for a number of other variables. A 10% increase in mobile phone penetration results in a 1.2% change in GDP per capita. Therefore, improving access to mobile phones will play a critical role in reducing the poverty level of the region through raising the per capita income of the population.However, the Internet has not contributed to the per capita GDP during the study period. The insignificant impact of the Internet could be due to low penetration of the technology, low ICT skill of Internet users, lack of or insufficient local content on the global network, and the relatively immature state of the technology in the region. Therefore, governments and other stakeholders should design policies that encourage expansion of the Internet. In addition to improving Internet access, policies which focus on ICT skill development and local content creation should also be designed and implemented.     

Land use dynamics driven by rural industrialization and land finance in the peri-urban areas of China: “The examples of Jiangyin and Shunde”

As China experienced rapid economic growth, non-agricultural land, particularly industrial land, expanded significantly within its peri-urban areas. This paper takes two typical peri-urban areas: Jiangyin in the Yangtze River Delta and Shunde in the Pearl River Delta, as cases, and applies landscape ecology indices to analyze land use dynamics through overlay of their land use maps from 2001 to 2010. This research reveals that local cadres such as township governments and village collectives utilize land finance as a strategy to contest the reshuffling of central-local power brought about by the 1994 tax-sharing scheme. Meanwhile, under the stringent land quota system, local cadres allocated most quotas to the industrial sector in order to encourage economic growth. However, the fragmented governance regime, including county/city, township to administrative village and natural village, led to land fragmentation, which had adverse impacts on sustainable development. In general, the research on land use of peri-urban areas requires a comprehensive perspective of social, economic and institutional aspects.     

Connecting the dots: The nexus between transport and telecommunication in Ghana

This paper examines the relationship between transport and telecommunication in developing countries within the broader concept of Smart Cities. Using Ghana as a case study, and drawing mainly on secondary data and few institutional surveys, the paper establishes that telegraph and telephone facilities, as well as new fiber optic networks are heavily dependent on rights-of-way of roads and railways in Ghana, as was observed in the advanced countries. In addition, the paper observed that at the macro level, the nature of the relationship between telecommunication and transport tends to support the complementary role of telecommunication rather than a substitution role. The paper concludes by recommending further studies at the micro level to untie the dilemma in the nexus between telecommunication and transport to inform public policy.     

乡村振兴背景下基层科协与农技协的现实困境和发展思考

中国科协的各级组织是我国实施科教兴国战略、建设创新型国家的重要力量,也是联结最基层的科技工作者和广大农民群体、促进乡村振兴战略落地的纽带。然而,全国层面的科协系统拥有高端的科技,但真正与广大农民群众对接的基层科协却是"冷冷清清"的"尴尬"组织,面临编制不足、队伍松散、经费紧缺、激励缺乏、地位不高、机关化和行政化等问题,在有限的人力、财力等资源约束下难以胜任直通基层"最后一公里"的任务。尽管如此,基层科协和农技协也不乏助力乡村振兴、精准扶贫的实践创新行动,其中,"专家工作站+农技协+公司(协会)+农户"是整合各方资源、实现小农户和现代农业发展有机衔接的有效方式。为了推动基层科协更好地服务乡村振兴战略,建议建立基层专家工作站、总结各地最佳实践、表彰优秀基层科协组织、出台加强基层科协建设的政策文件、补充县级科协应届大学毕业生就业岗位等。     

地震灾区小产权房灾后补偿研究

地震灾后,大量住房毁损,为推进住房重建工作,各级政府制定了灾后重建政策。在这些政策中一般对小产权房买受人是否有权申请置换房屋、如何补偿小产权房等规定不明。小产权房灾后补偿存在困境的法律原因在于小产权房买卖合同的效力认定有不同的认识、小产权房置换后的土地性质规定模糊、小产权房置换后原住房的归属不清。解决小产权房灾后补偿的举措在于明确政府应回收小产权房、保留原宅基地使用权以及将回收的小产权房用于廉租房。