Search

Comparing with cities, rural communities especially those declining rural communities have become vulnerable to natural disasters owing to their backward socioeconomic conditions. Taking Xun County of China's Henan Province as the study area, the paper aims to evaluate rural community resilience to flood by unveiling the connection between individuals' cognition, follow-up actions and the community resilience. Research results show that: (1) The logic chain exists as individual's cognition to disaster leads to their constructive actions to cope with disaster, which contribute to community resilience. (2) At the cognition dimension, individual's knowledge reserve of disaster prevention and their recognition to local authority are playing an important role in their decision making and follow-up behaviors when disaster occurs. (3) At the action dimension, individual's familiarity with the disaster preparedness, efficient information transmission when disaster occurs and villagers' following order and their unity of action all contribute to community resilience to disaster. The paper proposes ways to improve rural community resilience to disasters based on the research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to employment through the Internet matters a great deal to stabilise the livelihood of migrant peasant workers in Chinese cities. This study examines how Internet usage affects the off-farm income of migrant peasant workers by constructing a random effects model for the period 2010–2016. Research findings corroborate that Internet usage has significantly increased the off-farm income of migrant peasant workers and the positive impact of Internet usage on income is stronger for migrant peasant workers than for their urban flexible-employed counterparts. The positive impacts of Internet usage on migrant peasant workers' income vary regarding region, gender, and educational level. It is concluded that Internet usage has helped improve the livelihood resilience of migrant peasant workers in China. • Internet usage significantly increased the off-farm income of migrant peasant workers. • The impact is stronger for the migrant workers compared with their urban counterparts. • The positive impacts of internet usage on migrant workers' income vary in regions. • The positive impact is stronger on female income compared with male counterparts. • The positive income impacts of internet usage increase in education level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, through a case study of the Gengche Township in north Jiangsu (Subei), unveils how a less-favored region breaks out of the old industry path of waste recycling and processing and embarks on a green new one specializing in E-commerce. Drawing on key concepts in evolutionary economic geography, we propose a conceptual framework that addresses how entrepreneurial agents enact the processes of asset modification at multiple scales for new green path development in a rural context. Based on on-site interviews and survey, our analysis reveals that rural lead entrepreneurs and state elites pioneered and opened windows of opportunities for change, then legitimized by the state with wider support towards old path breaking. These state interventions enforce the bottom-up process of new green path development. In this process, extra-regional knowledge linkages and assets help facilitate the E-commerce development. It is concluded that rural new path development processes are not only contingent on local pre-conditions but are tempo-spatially dependent on collective actions of entrepreneurial multi-actors in identifying, transplanting and modifying local and non-local assets. The Gengche case demonstrates that rural new green path development in China requires the formation of strong system-level rural agency engaging in multi-scalar asset modification. • The transformation trajectory of Gengche, a previous poverty township, was investigated. • Rural lead entrepreneurs and state elites pioneered and opened windows of opportunities for change. • State interventions enforce the bottom-up process of new green path development. • Extra-regional knowledge linkages and assets help facilitate the E-commerce development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholders are prevalent worldwide. Agricultural cooperatives are often considered an effective instrument for bridging the gap between smallholders and modern agriculture because they enable large-scale production and ensure the quality of agricultural products. This study aims to provide quantitative evidence on the role of cooperatives in boosting macro-level agricultural economic growth using unbalanced panel data of 1866 Chinese counties between 2007 and 2019. The results show that the number of cooperatives at the county level exerts an 'inverted U-shaped' effect on agricultural economic growth, while the average membership size of cooperatives has a 'U-shaped' effect on agricultural economic growth. Cooperatives with no farmer members or capital contribution can be considered 'fake' cooperatives. However, these 'fake' cooperatives do not hamper the agricultural economy. Furthermore, capital accumulation is a critical mechanism through which agricultural cooperatives bridge the gap between smallholders and modern agriculture. On the contrary, government subsidies to agricultural cooperatives do not contribute to agricultural development. Based on the findings, this study recommends to drive out 'fake' cooperatives without farmer members or accumulated capital to promote the development of 'genuine' cooperatives. Moreover, establishing an appropriate membership size and promoting capital accumulation are also important to enhance the effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives in developing modern agriculture. • Agricultural cooperatives can effectively bridge the gap between smallholders and modern agriculture in China. • The number of cooperatives at the county level exerts an 'inverted U-shaped' effect on agricultural economic growth. • The average membership size of cooperatives has a 'U-shaped' effect on agricultural economic growth. • 'Fake cooperatives' with no farmer members or accumulated capital do not hamper the agricultural economy. • Cooperatives' capital accumulation rather than government subsidies boosts agricultural economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]