Changing collaborative networks and transitions in rural sustainable development: qualitative lessons from three villages in China

Promoting rural sustainable development requires improving rural systems’ self-organization to reduce dependence on external resources, which is inherently difficult in peasant economies due to low rural household income. Bottom-up collective action can help address these issues. However, few studies have examined how networks of elite and non-elite actors influence collective action and system transitions toward sustainability. This study scrutinizes the changing structures of collaborative networks in three Chinese villages through analysis of elite and non-elite actor groups and their relationships. We also examine the key elements that influence system transitions at every phase of rural sustainable development. The three case studies demonstrate that (1) elites play a vital role in the formation of collaborative networks and facilitate actor awareness; (2) spatial relationships are as essential as institutional design for successful collective action in response to sustainable development problems; (3) highly centralized collaborative networks help to improve the efficiency of the reorganization, renewal, and innovation of the village system, but the collective action outcome depends on the leadership and spatial relationships of the central actors; and (4) social memory and human capital are the most important system elements needed to exploit technology-driven windows of opportunity and achieve strong sustainability. These results provide important insights for enhancing rural systems’ capacity to self-organize and capturing windows of opportunity to achieve sustainable development.