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Human capital plays an important role in preventing the intergenerational transmission of poverty. The study aims to examine in detail how human capital impacts the intergenerational poverty transmission in China based on nationwide rural household survey. The research results are: (1) the improvement of individual human capital significantly reduces the risk of intergenerational poverty transmission in rural China; (2) in comparison to individual educational level, parents' educational level may not effectively decrease the risk of intergenerational poverty transmission; (3) the impact from human capital on the risk of intergenerational poverty transmission has relatively lower effectiveness on female than male in rural China; (4) human capital of Western China area generates more impact on reducing the risk of intergenerational poverty transmission than that of the central and eastern regions. In approach to improve the role of human capital in preventing intergenerational poverty transmission, the following policy implications should be considered, such as improving the rural education conditions and mechanism, encouraging self-improvement rather than parents dependency, and supporting rural female education. • Education may alter the status quo of the rural relative poverty in China. • To crawl out relative poverty, improving education is significantly effective. • Education benefits males more than females in rural China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural decline is an inevitable process as human society transforms from the agrarian to the urban-industrial economy, and further on to the knowledge economy. Through an extensive literature review, this paper aims to interpret why some rural areas decline while some others do not. The findings show that it is by the interactions between rural areas and the external environment that rural communities either grow, decline or even vanish. The paper emphasizes the necessity to improve rural communities' resilient capacity through adjusting their internal components' function and structure to survive the external changes. In this process, rural livelihood diversification, the creation of market oriented institutions and strong social capital are considered to enhance rural resilience and build up sustaining rural communities. Finally, three conditions for sustainable rural development in the knowledge economy are discussed: 1) development of new economic activities that can respond to potential urban demand; 2) local entrepreneurship that can establish and expand these new activities; and 3) social capital that can support the entrepreneurship in new activities with access to credits, labor, human capital, external markets and external knowledge for learning and innovation. • Rural decline is an inevitable phenomenon as human society transforms. • Interactions between rural areas and the external environment decide rural evolution. • Rural communities' resilient capacity must be enhanced against external challenges. • Collaboration within & between local actor groups is needed for rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid urbanization growth during the past decades which has highly promoted its affluence has induced various challenges for the countryside. The problem of rural decline of quite many villages which are suffering depopulation in turn challenges the urbanization sustainability in China. By way of in-depth historical and literature review, the paper finds distorted urban-rural relationship and the tendency of village decline owing to China's long time urban biased policy. By further investigating China's new-type urbanization strategy, the paper draws concerns about future rural development which is less mentioned in the plan. It calls for ruralization and actions to revitalize the countryside so as to be adapted to China's new-type urbanization plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is necessary for rural communities to meet conditions of decline, including depopulation, with effective strategies for rural revival and revitalisation. Based on Hirschman’s ‘exit-voice’ theory, this paper investigates the way in which local stakeholders respond to processes of rural depopulation. Case studies undertaken in Xiaoguan village in China and in Åre in Sweden reveal the effectiveness of bottom-up revitalization initiatives in combating rural decline. We show how local stakeholders’ strong “voices” in these places—which called for improved living conditions and increased job opportunities—held people and groups together, encouraging them to work together with shared values and attitude. The strong leadership demonstrated either by local committees or in stakeholders’ self-organized actions played an important role in carrying out revitalisation initiatives. We highlight the importance of not only reviving economies but also creating desirable rural lifestyles. Our findings also emphasize the need for bottom-up initiatives to align with government policy and regional development plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing rural resilience plays an important role in sustaining rural development when certain rural communities' decline becomes an inevitable process in the world. The paper evaluates China's rural resilience and investigates the spatio-temporal differences of rural resilience across the country in the period 2000–2018. Theoretical analysis indicates that rural resilience determines how and to what extent rural communities interact with external challenges. Empirical analysis shows a slight increasing tendency of China's rural resilience that remains below the median level. Rural resilience in Eastern China, which has a developed economy, is higher than that in Central and Western China. Compared with social resilience and engineering resilience, economic resilience is found to be the key restriction factor to China's rural resilience in the research period. This is mainly attributed to rural laborers' outflow to cities. The same findings are also seen in China's three regions. Policy implication emphasizes the importance of prioritizing rural economic growth to realize China's rural revitalization strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]