Alternative counter-urbanisation and the collage rural: Spatial reassembly in a peri-urban village in Guangdong, China

Abstract

This study reinterprets counter-urbanisation in China by examining how rural transformation unfolds through everyday spatial negotiations within a peri-urban village. Using Gangtou Village near Guangzhou as a case, it introduces the concept of collage rural to interpret fragmented and layered rural spaces shaped by villagers, governments, designers, and entrepreneurs. By analysing the three collaged spaces within the village (the old village, new village, and garden space), this article reveals multiple logics underpinning the production of rural collage, demonstrating how counter-urbanisation occurs alongside and in tension with processes of urbanisation, commercialisation, and ruralisation. Rather than a linear demographic shift, we propose the concept of alternative counter-urbanisation to describe local villagers’ selective adaptation of urban elements to preserve rural livelihoods and local rhythms, demostrating a non-urban living preference. The study calls for planning approaches in hybrid rural-urban zones of the Global South that embrace diversity and support incremental, collage-based transformations over top-down redevelopment.