Journal of Rural Studies最新文献

{"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":"Formative influences: How capital shapes rural students’ college-going intentions","authors":"Sarah Rutt Williams ,&nbsp;Anne M. Hornak ,&nbsp;Skylar R. Duke ,&nbsp;Frimpomaa Ampaw","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103758","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103758","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The purpose of this longitudinal study was to understand how rural students’ college-going behaviors may be shaped by locale-related and psychosocial factors with an emphasis on the assets of rural college-going students. The three themes that emerged were community attachment, the value of college, and strategic networks. For community attachment, their level of familiarity with higher education affected their perspectives about leaving home for college. Regarding how they value college, the findings were nuanced. In the wider survey many students felt it was a waste of money and were concerned about how to pay for college or if it was worth the cost. But the students who did attend college were aware of the value of college and how that affects their future employment. In terms of strategic networks, students discussed how school family and community supported them. Many students shared the school counselors did not have time to really help them, but noted other key people in the community or school who did. Recommendations include creating opportunities for rural students to have multiple experiences on college campuses and increasing the number of counselors in the high school so there is adequate time to assist each student. Due to the general lack of valuing of a college degree, knowledge building about the value of college to parents and students can help with a focus on how financial aid works and the increase in earning potential with a college degree.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103758"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144480174","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}

{"title":"Rebalancing healthcare utilization: Rural-urban health insurance integration and health-seeking behavior of rural residents in China","authors":"Jiarui Han ,&nbsp;Wenhao Hu ,&nbsp;Ruiyu Zhang ,&nbsp;Tong Pei ,&nbsp;Liping Fu","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103761","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103761","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The integration of urban-rural medical insurance in China aims to address healthcare disparities and improve rural medical protection. This paper evaluates the impact of the price shock due to this integration on rural residents' health-seeking behaviors. First, we establish an economic framework modeling a representative individual's medical choices based on medical prices and perceived quality. To empirically test this framework, we use four waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011–2018) and employ a multi-period DID model nested within a sample selection model. Findings indicate that the integration increases outpatient visits by 1.9 % and the likelihood of choosing primary healthcare centers (PHCs) for outpatient services by 7.2 %. This increase is driven by the targeted reimbursement for outpatient expenses exclusively at PHCs. Although hospitalization increases by 1.4 %, there is no significant change in the choice of inpatient institution, as out-of-pocket expenses for hospitalization are uniformly reduced across all levels of healthcare institutions after the integration. Heterogeneity analysis shows that younger, healthier, less-educated rural individuals and those from lower-income households are more likely to choose PHCs post-integration, with stronger effects in resource-limited cities. Further, this positive effect does not differ between chronic and non-chronic patients, even with extra insurance for chronic conditions post-integration. This study provides evidence that changes in cost-sharing effectively encourage rural patients to utilize primary care, especially outpatient services. Future policy optimization should focus on enhancing the capacity and quality of primary healthcare services to sustain these positive outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 103761"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471041","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}