Between Urban and Rural: Spatial Production in Modern Rural Families

Based on the theory of spatial production, the current study adopts a qualitative approach to examine the case of W Village on the southeast coast of China to explore the development of families presently living in rural areas, through the overlapping processes of "spatial transformation" and "rural families". The present study found that to make a living, families in rural areas use agricultural products as the main resources to travel between the city and rural regions. This way of living forms a rural-urban dual physical space mosaic of "living in the countryside-working in the city." These families imitate the lifestyle of urban families (e.g., education and health). This presents a spatial practice picture of rural families commuting between urban and rural regions. Different from the rural family modes of "no farming but still living in the village" and "leaving the village and no farming", the current spatial practice of rural families is a new development mode of "between urban and rural" that resembles "leaving the village but depending on farming", and considers the countryside as the settlement place and the home village as the resource. Urban and rural families share the goal of common prosperity, regardless of the material and spirit in the representation of space. However, with a gap between urban and rural families, rural families are found to lack confidence in agricultural production and rural society. It is the representational space about the decline of agricultural production and social relations in ethics and "adaption". Therefore, for comprehensively promoting rural revitalization and common prosperity, the synergy of social policies, narrowing the gap between the urban and rural systems of welfare and security, rebuilding community space for the self-confident family development of the village, reconstructing the internal development space of the individual autonomous family, and responding to the internal needs of family development should be emphasized. Thus, rural-urban dual physical space and the unitary social service space should be constructed. The current study expands the depth and scope of the analysis of rural family research and advances research in family development-related fields. Its contributions are as follows: First, through an in-depth observation, a relatively detailed and comprehensive picture of urban-rural shuttle, urban-rural mosaic, and urban imitation, the perspective of spatial production is presented for the spatial development of families living in rural areas and the associated generative mechanism. Second, based on the Chinese social context, this study analyzes the development of families rooted in rural China from the perspective of spatial production. It expands the research limits of spatial production from the perspectives of social change, social governance, community research, social action, etc. In the age of mobility, space is a perspective that cannot be ignored while examining family. The new spatial relationship between urban and rural in the process of Chinese modernization is an interesting research perspective, which can promote the localization of spatial production theory in China.