Journal of Rural Studies最新文献

{"title":"Citizen preferences for supporting farmers in sustainable rural management: An analysis of five biogeographically differentiated European countries","authors":"Rao Fu ,&nbsp;Meng Yue ,&nbsp;Shan Jin ,&nbsp;Lynn J. Frewer","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103779","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103779","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Farmers' adoption of sustainable practices is important if rural management is to deliver against environmental targets. Developing policies that enable such practices requires the support of broader society, including citizens with differing priorities and values related to e.g. food production and environmental protection. The aim of this research was to investigate European citizens' attitudes towards different approaches to promoting sustainable practices among farmers (financial incentivisation for adopters, technical advice regarding traditional methods, and technical advice regarding innovative technological approaches) as well as personal and environmental drivers of these attitudes from a Social Cognitive Theory perspective. Online survey data were analysed from 3,190 citizens in the Czech Republic (n = 649), Spain (n = 623), Sweden (n = 645), Switzerland (n = 641), and the UK (n = 632). These countries represented biogeographical regions with different habitat conditions and roles for agriculture within their national economies. The results indicated that participants from all of the five countries expressed a moderate to high level of support for financial incentivisation, with Swiss participants showing the lowest level of support. A similar range of moderate to high support was shown for technical advice on traditional methods and innovative technological approaches, with traditional methods receiving greater support than innovative approaches in all countries except for Spain. A two-step cluster analysis based on participants' perceptions of ecosystem service benefits in, and threats to, rural areas identified four segments within the participant sample: ‘rural ES benefits-focused citizens’, ‘citizens moderately engaged in rural multifunctionality’, ‘citizens highly engaged in rural multifunctionality’, and ‘ecocentric citizens’. Multiple regression analyses showed that highly engaged citizens tended to have the highest levels of support for all three approaches to promoting sustainable practices, whereas moderately engaged citizens demonstrated the lowest levels of support. Individuals with stronger preservationist environmental attitudes, and with higher trust in farmers and landowners, were associated with greater support. The results provide evidence for guiding future citizen engagement and policymaking related to pro-environmental rural management initiatives.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103779"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144517801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring co-production through engagement between scientists and producers in an agricultural living lab: A case study in Canada","authors":"Patrick James,&nbsp;Brooke McWherter,&nbsp;Alana R. Westwood","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103777","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103777","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agricultural living labs are initiatives where agricultural researchers work with commercial producers to test innovations and management practices under real world scenarios. In Canada, living labs across aim to use a co-production model across the research design and implementation cycle. This model is meant to combine the knowledge and experiences of producers, researchers, and key industry stakeholders. While a key component of co-production is engagement between producers and scientists, this process has not been widely studied in living labs. We developed a concept map for researcher-producer engagement based on identified success factors for living labs and used this to interview participants in Living Lab New Brunswick (11 agricultural producers and 3 scientists). Our results highlight the trade-offs of high trust in producer engagement in living labs and the influence of programmatic design features in informing engagement. Ultimately, our results showcase the challenges of building early engagement in co-production processes and how structural processes such as project scale and institutional incentives can complicate collaborative research. Living labs represent a collaborative research approach that aims to co-develop, test, and evaluate relevant practices to producers. Our results showcase the design and institutional opportunities and challenges in building engagement for co-production, providing considerations for other practitioners building engagement in co-production processes with rural agricultural communities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103777"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144517799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Eliciting dairy farmers' willingness to pay for digital devices for Precision Livestock Farming","authors":"Roberta Selvaggi ,&nbsp;Jayson L. Lusk ,&nbsp;Gioacchino Pappalardo","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103772","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103772","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The adoption of Precision Livestock Farming devices represents a strategic investment for enhancing competitiveness and sustainability of livestocks. However, widespread adoption faces challenges, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, due to high initial and maintenance costs and technical complexities. This study applies an experimental economics approach to elicit dairy cattle farmers' willingness to pay for an innovative, low-cost, stand-alone pedometer, through an experimental auction. The findings show that farmers are not a priori opposed to the adoption of digital devices and traditional barriers to the adoption of digital devices can be overcome if such devices are economically affordable and user-friendly.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103772"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144517892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrating human mobility and rural multifunction to identify village types in metropolitan suburbanization","authors":"Xuesong Kong ,&nbsp;Ruitian Zhang ,&nbsp;Feifei Lin ,&nbsp;Ping Jiang ,&nbsp;Yajie Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103776","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103776","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Increasing human mobility during metropolitan suburbanization drives rapid functional transitions in rural areas. However, the interactions between human mobility and rural function has been challenging due to the scarcity of real-life mobility data. Leveraging mobile phone data capturing 50.26 million real-world exposures among 1.24 million people in Wuhan, China, we investigated the human mobility network and evaluated the multifunctional development levels across 1559 villages. We constructed a multifunctional index system spanning five dimensions: residential life, agricultural production, non-agricultural production, ecological security, and leisure culture. A Spatial Toeplitz Inverse Covariance-Based Clustering (STICC) algorithm was then proposed to identify village types by integrating mobility patterns and multifunctionality. Our analysis reveals that while Wuhan's rural areas remain predominantly monofunctional, high-frequency mobility drives evident multifunctional transformation. Population density, network centrality, and urban-rural connectivity all show significant positive correlations with residential life, non-agricultural production, and leisure-cultural functions, while exhibiting consistent negative correlations with ecological conservation. The STICC algorithm successfully delineated five distinct village types, enabling targeted optimization pathways. These findings provide a novel framework for deciphering mobility-function interdependence and advancing precision governance in metropolitan suburbanization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103776"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144517186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring spatial restructuring of villages and towns in rural China: Insights from villagers’ subjective willingness","authors":"Jiajie Liu ,&nbsp;Guangzhong Cao ,&nbsp;Yan Song ,&nbsp;Tao Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103775","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103775","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The spatial patterns of rural settlements are theoretically assumed to be a town-led centralized pattern in which the town is the center and the villages are the periphery. However, with the improvement of rural transportation infrastructure and the urbanization of lifestyles, rural residents' locational choices of residence and employment become increasingly diversified, catalyzing the spatial redistribution of residence and employment functions to reorganize the spatial patterns of towns and villages. To bridge the literature gap in understanding rural spatial restructuring driven by the changes of residence and employment functions, this paper analyzed villagers' subjective willingness to live and work in the town and explored rural spatial restructuring mechanisms by using survey data covering 1158 villagers from 55 townships in China. The survey results showed that villagers' willingness to live and work in the town is not consistent, and the former is usually weaker than the latter. Individual preferences and environmental characteristics together contribute to different willingness. A multinomial logistic model was constructed to explore villagers’ expectations for four spatial patterns, namely town-led centralized (TC) pattern, concentrated residence (CR) pattern, concentrated employment (CE) pattern, and decentralized (DC) pattern. Villagers have different preferences for different patterns. The location, industry, amenities of the town mainly determine the evolution towards different spatial patterns. The findings open up a novel perspective for understanding rural spatial restructuring and support for optimizing spatial patterns of villages and towns.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103775"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144510973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Agricultural shows: connecting people, place and emotions","authors":"Carolyn Gibbeson ,&nbsp;Caroline Westwood","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103754","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103754","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agricultural shows are long established and key events, particularly for rural communities, but with many interconnections to wider society. They are a space that displays the finest livestock, mechanical, technological, and skills innovations, but with many underlying economic, social, cultural and environmental features and influences (Langridge-Thomas et al., 2021). Despite their multifaceted significance, they remain relatively understudied leisure events within the literature, particularly in the sphere of participant's emotional connections to these events, something which the research in this article begins to address. These long-established events provide an environment in which participants attach significant emotions to their attendance, influencing memories of their involvement. The shows act as a platform for like-minded individuals to come together, share knowledge, best practices, learn new skills and also to socialise. These connections (whether new or established) exist through the context of space (designated areas within the show) and place and the significance participants attach to these events. Although in the case of agricultural shows, whilst the physical showground might be permanent for the larger shows, the show space itself is only temporary, and this is a vital part of the tradition, heritage and memories generated through attendance at these events.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103754"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144491248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The long-term impact of land certification on factor reallocation and household welfare in rural China","authors":"Minjie Chen ,&nbsp;Guangcheng Ren ,&nbsp;Nico Heerink","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103762","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103762","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Well-defined and secure land tenure rights are critical for promoting factor reallocation and improving household welfare. Yet, available studies on land tenure security-enhancing programs generally do not consider time lags in their implementation and provide mixed evidence on the impact on rural household welfare. This paper estimates the long-term effects of China's 2009–2018 land certification program on factor reallocation and household welfare, using survey data collected in 2019 from three Chinese provinces. We exploit village-level variation in the number of years since program completion, addressing potential selection bias in program rollout. The results show that longer program exposure significantly increases households' participation in land rental markets, driven primarily by increased probability of land renting-in rather than renting-out. However, we find no statistically significant effect on cross-sectoral labor reallocation. Changes in agricultural investment patterns and operational farm sizes further support the observed evidence in land and labor reallocation. Regarding household welfare, while agricultural income rises with longer program exposure, total household income does not. Further analysis of income dispersion suggests that the program has a pro-poor distributional effect at the sample level but not within villages. These findings underscore the importance of understanding the discrepancies between policy design and implementation in evaluating program impact and provide novel evidence on the sustained effects of land tenure reforms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103762"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144491247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Less is more? Differences of social impacts on farm workers in short/long agricultural supply chains in Spain","authors":"Carmen Capdevila ,&nbsp;Nathalie Iofrida ,&nbsp;Anna De Luca ,&nbsp;Elsa Varela","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103765","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103765","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agriculture is one of the most dangerous occupations in Europe. Practices such as the use of pesticides, physically demanding tasks, and long working hours are more common than in other sectors. Health risks jeopardise the transition to sustainable agriculture, affecting the well-being of farmers and workers. Although the economic and environmental sustainability of development strategies adopted by farms to thrive (i.e., economies of scale or specialisation vs. economies of scope or diversification) have been extensively studied, there is comparatively less research on how these different models affect workers' and farmers’ health. This paper assesses the social impacts of six farms in two farming systems in northeastern Spain to disentangle the effect that their contrasted productive strategies and value chain structures have on the social impacts of agricultural production. For this purpose, the Psychosocial Risk Factor (PRF) methodology was used. PRF is an impact pathway method within Social Life Cycle Assessment. It was used to establish an impact pathway between agricultural tasks, working conditions, and possible social risks, which allowed the quantification of impacts. Specific data on working hours allocated to each farm task were collected through a farmer survey. The results showed that farms in both case studies had the highest impacts related to the musculoskeletal system and articulations, even in farms that operate in the highly mechanised agro-industrial model. Since harvesting is the task to which they dedicate more time and remains mostly manual, mechanisation of certain tasks may not lead to an improvement in terms of hours of exposure to these risks. Regarding PRF hours per hectare, farms specialised in fruit production are less sustainable, since they are more intensive in labour demand. The smaller and more diversified farms use fewer mechanical labour and chemical pesticides per hectare, resulting in minor exposure to the overall health risks. Finally, our research highlights the crucial role of middle ground practices in improving sustainability by integrating agro-ecological methods into conventional agriculture, underscoring the importance of considering trade-offs between different productive and value chain structures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103765"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144480175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Heterogeneous impacts of statewide policies across urban and rural markets: Evidence from liquor sales","authors":"Philip Watson ,&nbsp;Jason A. Winfree ,&nbsp;Ron C. Mittelhammer ,&nbsp;Jill J. McCluskey","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103753","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103753","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article analyzes and compares changes in liquor sales across urban and rural markets that occurred in response to COVID-19 pandemic and the associated shutdown policies. The data includes every liquor sales transaction, by type (retail store vs. bars and restaurants), month, and location in the State of Idaho. The data facilitates an analysis of the differential dynamic effects of COVID-19 on sales through retail and wholesale (i.e., bars and restaurants) market channels differentiated by urban and rural regions, estimated at the individual-outlet level. Controlling for persistent seasonal fluctuations in liquor consumption, retail liquor sales surged during the peak of the stay-at-home policies, while bar and restaurant sales declined markedly. As bars and restaurants began to reopen, substantial differences occurred between urban and rural areas, including the persistence of reduced sales to bars and restaurants. This suggests that statewide pandemic policies, which were more focused on addressing conditions in urban areas, may have benefitted from greater regional differentiation tailored to idiosyncrasies of rural populations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103753"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144480173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identifying the specific features, determinants, and suitability of green homestay inn distribution in rural China","authors":"Yan Xiang ,&nbsp;Bo Zhang ,&nbsp;Yanlin Hou ,&nbsp;Fuduo Li","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103760","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103760","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The emergence of sharing economy has significantly promoted the development of homestay around the world, and the appropriateness of homestay location has always been a focus of discussion among scholars, because it directly determines the business consequences. This study brings to light the intricate dynamics governing the distribution of rural green homestay inns in Guizhou, China, revealing a complex impact of diverse factors that shape their geographical preferences using Spatial Neighborhood Analysis, Geodetector, and Suitability Evaluator. These tools unveiled that rural green homestay inns are commonly located in proximity to critical rural tourist sites and cultural attractions. Many are ideally positioned near eco-villages, adorned with lush greenery, alongside main roads for easy access, and adjacent to rivers set against gentle or moderate elevations. Interestingly, while not economically developed, these areas often boast a vibrant tertiary industry. In identifying the optimal location for a rural green homestay inn, factors such as a rich array of tourism and cultural attractions, an inviting rural ecology, and convenient accessibility are paramount. However, only a tiny fraction of the land, specifically 1.04 %, and 5.25 %, is identified as highly and relatively suitable for rural green homestay inns in Guizhou, underscoring the need for a strategic and thoughtful layout process due to the scarcity of suitable locations. The findings highlight the need for strategic optimization of rural green homestay layouts to better support rural revitalization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103760"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144491246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}