Journal of Rural Studies最新文献

{"title":"Older people and food insecurity in rural places: Invisibility, complexity and sociality","authors":"Paul Milbourne,&nbsp;Megan Blake,&nbsp;Ollie Chesworth","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104287","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104287","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Older people and rural places remain neglected subjects within the academic literature on food insecurity. In this paper, we investigate the relations between food insecurity and older people in rural England. We do this in a couple of ways. First, we utilise findings from an analysis of national survey data on food insecurity to examine levels of food insecurity and engagements with food assistance services amongst older people and those living in rural places. Second, we draw on materials from ethnographic research at a community food club in a rural district to explore older people's understandings of, and encounters with, food, food insecurity and community food provision. Three key findings emerge from our study. First, levels of food insecurity and engagements with food aid services are particularly low amongst older age groups and those living in rural places. Second, the relationship between older people and food insecurity in rural places is complex, bound up with cultures of denial, thriftiness, sharing and informal support. Third, community-based food provision can overcome some of the stigmatic aspects of food insecurity and food aid to provide meaningful social food experiences for older people in rural places.</div><div>Food insecurity older people community food rural places UK.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"126 ","pages":"Article 104287"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148642122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How do smallholders enter local market? Embedded procurement in rural China","authors":"Suyuan He,&nbsp;Weiye Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104315","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104315","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores how some smallholder farmers in rural China are incorporated into local markets amid agricultural modernization, farming household differentiation, and production fragmentation. Based on field investigations conducted across multiple rural areas, the paper proposes the concept of embedded procurement to generalize a localized transaction mechanism rooted in some village communities. Within this mechanism, dealers purchase agricultural products from scattered smallholder farmers by relying on village social relations, shared norms, and community accountability mechanisms. Unlike standardized market exchange or vertically integrated contract farming, embedded procurement operates primarily through repeated interactions, relational trust, informal rules, and local expectations, thereby reducing costs associated with search, quality identification, transaction coordination, and compliance supervision. The findings reveal that different types of farming households participate in this mechanism in differentiated ways. This mechanism is most critical for part-time and marginal farming households in “hollowed-out” villages, yet its intensity varies in response to changes in social structure, transaction patterns, and local rules. Operational farmers provide relatively stable supply and enhance the attractiveness of local agricultural products to external markets. Part-time farmers rely on embedded procurement to balance agricultural production and non-farm livelihoods. And marginal farmers, despite a weak market orientation, are nevertheless integrated into the transaction system through kinship ties, neighborhood networks, and village norms. Meanwhile, dealers are not merely market intermediaries but actors embedded within local social relations, whose role is to transform surplus output from scattered households into identifiable and marketable commodity flows. This paper argues that embedded procurement constitutes a transaction order endogenous to rural communities, enabling smallholders to sustain market access under conditions of inadequate formal regulation, high transaction costs, and highly dispersed production. Although this mechanism is being shaped by ongoing modernization, capitalization, and market formalization, it retains substantial practical significance. It sustains local agricultural circulation, improves the welfare of vulnerable farmers, and strengthens rural community resilience. By conceptualizing embedded procurement, this paper makes empirical and theoretical contributions to the literature on smallholder commercialization, market embeddedness, and moral economy in rural transformation across developing countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"126 ","pages":"Article 104315"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148642120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"“What's going to happen to the land and what are people going to live on?” Negotiating change and threats to dairy farmer identities and livelihoods in Aotearoa New Zealand","authors":"Elizabeth Elliot Noe,&nbsp;Ottilie Stolte,&nbsp;Anita Wreford","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104328","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104328","url":null,"abstract":"<div><ul><li><span>•</span><span><div>The cultural narrative of New Zealand as a nation of farmers is being challenged.</div></span></li><li><span>•</span><span><div>Social representations and the status of dairy farming in New Zealand are shifting.</div></span></li><li><span>•</span><span><div>Dairy farming representations differ between farming and non-farming communities.</div></span></li><li><span>•</span><span><div>Farmers are navigating threats to their identity, landscapes and way of life.</div></span></li><li><span>•</span><span><div>There is a need for greater collective responsibility to promote the common good.</div></span></li></ul></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"126 ","pages":"Article 104328"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148642121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Corrigendum to “Understanding terraced cropland marginalization in China's mountainous areas: Process, characteristics, and underlying mechanisms” [J. Rural Stud., 125(2026), 104177]","authors":"Hengfei Song,&nbsp;Xiubin Li,&nbsp;Yufeng He,&nbsp;Xue Wang,&nbsp;Liangjie Xin,&nbsp;Minghong Tan,&nbsp;Shijie Dong","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104309","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104309","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"126 ","pages":"Article 104309"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148656741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Coordination mechanisms in digital rural development: An integrative systems framework and evidence from China","authors":"Xiaojuan Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104183","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104183","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Digital rural development is a complex systemic transition involving technological, social, and institutional dimensions. However, existing research often treats these dimensions in isolation, failing to explain the underlying coordination mechanisms. Adopting a systems thinking perspective, this study proposes a hierarchical framework that conceptualizes digital rural areas as three interrelated subsystems: <em>Physical</em>, <em>Activity</em>, and <em>Strategic Management</em>. By integrating <em>Hierarchical Nesting Theory</em>, the <em>Viable System Model</em> (VSM), and <em>Synergetics</em>, we analyze the coordination mechanisms regarding structure, control, and dynamics. Using China (Guangdong Province) as an empirical case, we validate the framework by synthesizing evidence from policy documents, research reports, academic literature, and 26 semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal structural misalignments, specifically: (1) the mismatch between physical infrastructure and grassroots activity needs; (2) vertical control failures caused by strategic fragmentation; and (3) the tension between rigid top-down hetero-organization and insufficient bottom-up self-organization. To address these, we develop a diagnostic framework that advocates a paradigm shift from construction-oriented to viability-oriented governance. This research contributes an integrative theoretical tool for analyzing digital rural transformation as a complex adaptive system across diverse institutional contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"125 ","pages":"Article 104183"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148168596","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":"Diffusion of gerontechnology in rural communities: Rethinking aging in place in developing countries","authors":"Genghua Huang ,&nbsp;Samuel Ampadu Oteng ,&nbsp;Silai Dong","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104223","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104223","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While gerontechnology research mainly focuses on urban and high-income settings, this paper investigates the challenges and opportunities in rural, resource-limited areas. Drawing on the Diffusion of Innovation theory, this study explores how older adults in rural China and Ghana adopt gerontechnologies, offering a comparative perspective on how older adults in developing countries use these technologies. Interviews with 100 older adults (60 in China, 40 in Ghana) reveal three key findings: (1) adoption is driven by necessity, often due to health crises; (2) economic benefits and simplicity are more critical than advanced features, with financial tools and basic safety devices valued over complex health monitors; (3) cultural fit is essential, supporting existing family and community care systems. The study also highlights stark differences: in rural China, technologies are introduced through urban family networks, which are used to manage chronic diseases and facilitate remote caregiving. Ghanaian participants, facing infrastructure limitations, prefer shared emergency devices and communication tools that strengthen family bonds rather than health technologies. Chinese adoption reflects urban-rural family support, while Ghana's reliance on community sharing demonstrates adaptive strategies with limited resources. These findings challenge Western gerontechnology models and highlight the need for context-specific solutions. We propose hybrid solar-digital solutions for low-resource settings (e.g., Ghana), subsidized connectivity for middle-income rural areas (China), and intergenerational training that respects local hierarchies. Focusing on the experiences of rural older adults, this research contributes to debates on equitable aging, technology justice, and rural development. It advocates a decolonized approach emphasizing affordability, adaptability, and cultural relevance to support dignified aging in place.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"125 ","pages":"Article 104223"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148168595","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":"Promise-making with rural tourism: A temporal perspective on rural development in China","authors":"Xi Lan ,&nbsp;Yang Zhan ,&nbsp;Hok Bun Ku","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104224","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104224","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article focuses on “not-yet successfully touristified villages” in rural China. While rural tourism has been on the rise resent years, many villages have not yet benefited from the tourism growth but mire in aborted or suspended projects. Through an ethnographic case study of a northern Chinese village, we reveal how the preparatory process of tourism has reshaped a village long before tourists or gentrifiers arrive. Conceptualizing this process as “promise-making”, we demonstrate how stalled projects operate in half-voltage and constantly recalibrate local people’ affective bonds with the future. This self-renewal ability dose not substantiate its legitimacy; rather, we argue that the protracted suspension not only generates ambivalent experiences of villagers but also subjects villagers to protracted uncertainties. Moreover, we find that the structural exclusion is not just a tourism consequence but begins from the project conceptual stage. By foregrounding the conditions, mechanisms, characteristics, and influences of the promise-making regime powered by rural tourism, this article offers a temporal perspective to explicate Chinese rural development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"125 ","pages":"Article 104224"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148168608","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":"When inequality suppresses aspiration: Income gaps and developmental consumption in rural China","authors":"Guoxiong Zhao,&nbsp;Yiyi Fu,&nbsp;Yunhao Lv,&nbsp;Xianli Xia","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104231","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104231","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rising income inequality has become a prominent global challenge, raising concerns about households' ability to translate current income into long-term developmental investment. Using five waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2014 to 2022, this study examines the impact of income inequality on developmental consumption among rural households. The results show that income inequality significantly suppresses such consumption. Mechanism analysis indicates that this effect operates through social and psychological channels. First, widening income disparities weaken households' embeddedness in social networks, reducing access to information and mutual support and thereby constraining developmental expenditures. Second, income inequality erodes social trust, undermining the basis for long-term decision-making. Third, it diminishes households' confidence in the future, further discouraging investment-oriented consumption. Heterogeneity analyses show that these effects are stronger among young and middle-aged individuals, residents in eastern regions, and non-internet users. By integrating social and psychological perspectives, this study explains how income inequality shapes rural households’ long-term consumption and investment decisions, with implications for promoting consumption upgrading and inclusive development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"125 ","pages":"Article 104231"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148168607","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":"Scaling up cross-village land consolidation while maintaining local legitimacy: Evidence from Zijiao Town, China","authors":"Xueqian Ding ,&nbsp;Jinghui Zhao ,&nbsp;Yongzhong Tan","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104232","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104232","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Land consolidation now extends beyond parcel adjustment and increasingly intersects with rural development, spatial planning, and governance. Cross-village land consolidation makes the shift especially visible because a larger territorial scale can improve coordination while also straining local legitimacy. Existing research has not fully explained how broader coordination and local legitimacy are held together within the same consolidation process. Drawing on adaptive governance and place-based rural development, this study developed an institution–space–governance (ISG) framework and applied it to a qualitative, longitudinal case study of Zijiao Town in Shandong Province, China. Evidence was drawn from policy and planning documents, semi-structured interviews, and field observations. The findings show that larger-scale coordination and local legitimacy were not achieved sequentially. Institutional rescaling created a broader arena for cross-village coordination. Spatial reconfiguration linked pooled land to local resources, industrial trajectories, and village expectations. Governance feedback then turned disagreement over compensation, lease terms, facility siting, and benefit distribution into revisions of rules and plans. The arrangement took shape through iterative adjustment rather than one-off design. Broader relevance lies less in a specific organizational form than in intermediary arrangements through which larger-scale coordination can be recalibrated while retaining local credibility. This study extends debates on adaptive governance and place-based rural development by showing how coordination and local fit can be held together in a collective-tenure, strong-state setting.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"125 ","pages":"Article 104232"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148168606","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":"It takes a village, but how? A community cohesion perspective on alleviating poverty multidimensionally in rural areas through entrepreneurship","authors":"W.G. Will Zhao ,&nbsp;Xiaotong Liu ,&nbsp;Lun Hu","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104219","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104219","url":null,"abstract":"<div><ul><li><span>•</span><span><div>Entrepreneurship reduces multidimensional poverty in rural China.</div></span></li><li><span>•</span><span><div>Symbolic cohesion moderates entrepreneurship-poverty link more than networks.</div></span></li><li><span>•</span><span><div>Ancestral halls and genealogy amplify entrepreneurship's poverty reduction.</div></span></li><li><span>•</span><span><div>Community-level symbolic institutions are essential for rural development.</div></span></li><li><span>•</span><span><div>Policy implications integrate cultural preservation with economic development.</div></span></li></ul></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"125 ","pages":"Article 104219"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148168609","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}