{"title":"How new rural elites facilitate community-based homestead system reform in rural China: A perspective of village transformation","authors":"Weiping Liu , Lin Yin , Yan Zeng","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2024.103096","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In line with China's rural transformation, the homestead system reform (HSR) pilots have been launched to rectify adverse land-related issues by formalising and capitalising land property rights. In contrast with a government-led model prevalent among most national HSR pilots, a community-based approach has been experimented with and proven efficient in Yujiang County, southern China. It highlights a pivotal role of the endogenous and public-spirited activists who are locally called ‘new rural elites’ (NREs). From the perspective of village transformation processes, this paper establishes a theoretical framework and employs a case study in Yujiang to interpret the underlying rationale for NREs' involvement in HSR. The findings indicate that HSR, aiming at multi-level space reshaping and ‘<em>three rights separation</em>’ reform, is in alignment with the triple processes of village transformation (i.e., <em>systemic</em>, <em>communal</em>, and <em>living</em>). The NREs represent a cultural force for facilitating village transformation, which is underpinned by the <em>capacity</em>, <em>channel</em> and <em>carrier</em> endowed by urban-rural linkages, interpersonal value transmission and community social solidarity, respectively. The benevolent dominance of the NREs is jointly shaped by governmental empowerment and accountability, egalitarian property rights design and strong social solidarity. To expand NREs' benevolent roles, this study recommends aligning community empowerment with the improvements of community-based action capacity.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Habitat International","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397524000961","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In line with China's rural transformation, the homestead system reform (HSR) pilots have been launched to rectify adverse land-related issues by formalising and capitalising land property rights. In contrast with a government-led model prevalent among most national HSR pilots, a community-based approach has been experimented with and proven efficient in Yujiang County, southern China. It highlights a pivotal role of the endogenous and public-spirited activists who are locally called ‘new rural elites’ (NREs). From the perspective of village transformation processes, this paper establishes a theoretical framework and employs a case study in Yujiang to interpret the underlying rationale for NREs' involvement in HSR. The findings indicate that HSR, aiming at multi-level space reshaping and ‘three rights separation’ reform, is in alignment with the triple processes of village transformation (i.e., systemic, communal, and living). The NREs represent a cultural force for facilitating village transformation, which is underpinned by the capacity, channel and carrier endowed by urban-rural linkages, interpersonal value transmission and community social solidarity, respectively. The benevolent dominance of the NREs is jointly shaped by governmental empowerment and accountability, egalitarian property rights design and strong social solidarity. To expand NREs' benevolent roles, this study recommends aligning community empowerment with the improvements of community-based action capacity.
期刊介绍:
Habitat International is dedicated to the study of urban and rural human settlements: their planning, design, production and management. Its main focus is on urbanisation in its broadest sense in the developing world. However, increasingly the interrelationships and linkages between cities and towns in the developing and developed worlds are becoming apparent and solutions to the problems that result are urgently required. The economic, social, technological and political systems of the world are intertwined and changes in one region almost always affect other regions.