Speaker
Description
Rural development, aimed at reducing the disparities between urban and rural areas, remains a significant global challenge under climate change, land conflicts, food insecurity, and environmental degradation. UN-Habitat has proposed enhancing urban-rural linkages as a means to address this issue. In China, rural revitalization has been promoted as a national strategy through enhancing the flow of development factors between urban and rural areas. This shift reflects a transition in China's policy from a "dual urban-rural system" to "urban-rural integration" leading to substantial improvements in urban-rural linkages, such as transportation, energy, internet access, technology, and talent exchange. Despite these advancements, local governments continue to face challenges due to the constraints of administrative boundaries, resulting in issues such as uneven resource distribution, limited physical and social mobility, and ineffective governance. Overcoming these limitations and fostering rural development beyond administrative boundaries are essential for achieving regional coordination and enhancing rural governance.
This study examines villages around Taihu Lake in Huzhou, China, to explore approaches that encourage coordinated development beyond the administrative boundaries in rural areas. Huzhou was designated as a national pilot zone for urban-rural integration in 2019, leading to the selection of villages in Huzhou as study sites based on several pilot studies conducted in the Yangtze River Delta. The city has actively pursued initiatives to facilitate the flow of development factors between urban and rural areas, promoting rural development through land use, population mobility, and shared infrastructure.
Using archival research, location-based data analysis, census data analysis, field visits, participatory observations, and in-depth interviews, the study focuses on the development agendas and strategies of each village, cooperative activities in economic, social, and ecological dimensions, and the interactive mechanisms between villages under the guidance of local towns or sub-districts. The study aims to address key questions: What initiatives encourage rural development across administrative boundaries? What policies and projects support this development? What are the benefits and challenges? In this light, this research seeks to contribute to cross-boundary rural development by enriching empirical studies of exploratory practices in China. It could also provide valuable insights for regions facing similar development challenges around the world.
| Keywords | Urban-rural Linkages ; Administrative Boundaries ; Urban-rural Governance |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
