Presents new ways of understanding the old dichotomy city vs country in an effort to think through the epistemological and artistic implications of the modern antinomy's demise, whereby the non-city ceases to be the city's absolute other.

The sudden outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 has caused a huge impact on the Chinese residents' health and economic level. In the pandemic background, the country and its institutions have introduced pandemic-related insurance to stabilize the national situation. At this stage, insurance has played an increasingly important role in social life. With the popularization of insurance, the idea of buying insurance to avoid risk has gradually become popular among people. Among them, the New Rural Cooperative Medical System has been farmers' (...) common choice. The NRCMS, a mutual aid system created by farmers spontaneously in the country, plays a great role in guaranteeing farmers access to basic health services, alleviating poverty caused by disease and returning to poverty due to disease, and promoting poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. Given this backdrop, we study the efficiency of the NRCMS that can effectively promote poverty alleviation and rural revitalization and ensure the people's happy life. Implementing the Data Envelopment Analysis, we find that technological progress is one of the main factors influencing the efficiency of the NRCMS. Therefore, it is important to improve the technology for providing the efficiency of the NRCMS and promoting the happiness of the society. (shrink)

Resumo: Chen Yingsong criou Lago Gato Selvagem não apenas para contar uma história sobre lésbicas. Ao descrever como Xiang’er, uma mulher rural, torna-se lésbica nas aldeias, pode-se ver a “riqueza” e o “significado metafórico” do símbolo lésbico. No que diz respeito ao Lago Gato Selvagem, é mais interessante tratar como Xiang’er se torna lésbica, que não se refere apenas sobre sexo ou gênero, mas também sobre opressão política e econômica; assim, o chamado gênero, entendido utopicamente, poderá ser identificado. Além disso, (...) a perda da subjetividade rural durante a ampliação e a transformação posterior, a nova opressão e a exploração resultantes são as razões fundamentais para Xiang’er se tornar lésbica e eventualmente “matar seu marido”. (shrink)

The Making of a New Rural Order in South China: I. Village, Land, and Lineage in Huizhou, 900– 1600. By Joseph P. McDermott. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. xvi + 466. $99.00.

The Making of a New Rural Order in South China, vol. 2: Merchants, Markets, and Lineages, 1500– 1700. By Joseph P. McDermott. Cambridge: Cambridgr University Press, 2020. Pp. xii + 468. $139 (cloth); $45 (paper).

This special issue contributes to a grounded understanding about 'sustainability' in a range of rural contexts and in so doing sheds light on accompanying tensions and implications for the future of rural areas in Europe. It also brings attention to how the rural might be changing as a result of this new focus on sustainability. The 17 contributions bring to light crucial dimensions of sustainability: (1) the imperative of wellbeing, belonging and care; (2) dimensions of power and identity; (3) the (...) apprehension of time and space - in other words, sustainability as a process and always in transition; (4) social and spatial justice; and (5) the question of knowledge production on the rural and on sustainability. (shrink)

This research situates new farmers within the counter-urbanization phenomenon, explores their urban–rural migration experiences and examines how they are becoming a part of the rural agricultural landscape. Key characteristics in new farmers’ sense of place constructions are revealed through an ethnographic study conducted in southern Ontario, Canada, during the summer of 2009. Using a sense of place framework comprised of place identity, place attachment, and sense of community, this research details a contemporary concept of place to provide a fresh perspective (...) on new farmers. It uncovers underlying motivations, goals, and values attached to rural agricultural landscapes as well as the “everyday” interactions and challenges experienced by those transitioning into rural farming communities. New farmers are found to draw unevenly from both the physical and social landscape of the urban and rural environments in the creation of a sense of place. This finding raises important questions about the socio-spatial dynamics that underscore the place of food and the local food movement. (shrink)

Aims and objectives. Participant narratives from a feminist and queer phe- nomenological study aim to broaden current understandings of trauma. Examin- ing structural marginalisation within perinatal care relationships provides insights into the impact of dominant models of care on queer birthing women. More specifically, validation of queer experience as a key finding from the study offers trauma-informed strategies that reconstruct formerly disempowering perinatal relationships. Background. Heteronormativity governs birthing spaces and presents considerable challenges for queer birthing women who may also have (...) an increased risk of trauma due to structurally marginalising processes that create and maintain socially constructed differences. Design. Analysis of the qualitative data was guided by feminist and queer phe- nomenology. This was well suited to understanding queer women’s storied narra- tives of trauma, including disempowering processes of structural marginalisation. Methods. Semistructured and conversational interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of thirteen queer-identified women who had experiences of birthing in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. Results. Validation was identified as meaningful for queer women in the context of perinatal care in rural Nova Scotia. Offering new perspectives on traditional models of assessment provide strategies to create a context of care that recon- structs the birthing space insofar as women at risk do not have to come out as queer in opposition to the expectation of heterosexuality. Conclusions. Normative practices were found to further the effects of structural marginalisation suggesting that perinatal care providers, including nurses, can challenge dominant models of care and reconstruct the relationality between queer women and formerly disempowering expectations of heteronormativity that govern birthing spaces. Relevance to clinical practice. New trauma-informed assessment strategies recon- struct the relationality within historically disempowering perinatal relationships through potentiating difference which avoids retraumatising women with re- experiencing the process of coming out as queer in opposition to the expectation of heterosexuality. (shrink)

Ethical perspectives on regional, rural, and remote healthcare often, understandably and importantly, focus on inequities in access to services. In this commentary, we take the opportunity to examine the implications of normalizing metrocentric views, values, knowledge, and orientations, evidenced by the recent (2022) New South Wales inquiry into health outcomes and access to hospital and health services in regional, rural and remote New South Wales, for contemporary rural governance and justice debates. To do this, we draw on the feminist inspired (...) approach to rural health ethics involving analysis of power relationships developed by Simpson and McDonald and related ideas from critical health sociology. In presenting this analysis, we extend contemporary thought about spatial health inequities and structural violence. (shrink)

In the context of agricultural activity intensification and rural abandonment, neo-rurality has emerged as a back-to-the-land migratory movement led by urban populations seeking alternative ways of life close to nature. Although the initiatives of the new peasantry are diverse, most are land related, such as agriculture and livestock farming. A priori, neorural people undertake agri-food system activities in ways that differ from the conventional model, following the principles of environmental and social sustainability. We conducted a systematic review of the (...) literature on the neo-rural phenomenon with the main objective of examining how neo-rurality has been found to support agroecological transitions. The corpus of neo-rural studies was analyzed from a social-ecological perspective, and a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) was conducted to determine whether neo-rural agri-food system activities follow agroecological principles. The results indicate that neo-rural studies is an emerging research field that has received considerable attention in western countries. Diverse conceptualizations and terms have been used to address the phenomenon, but the literature agrees on political and environmental motivations and several barriers faced by neo-rural people. This population and in particular new peasants, are employing a wide variety of agroecological practices and strategies throughout the agri-food system. Overall, neo-rural people have been reported to contribute significantly to agroecological transition. (shrink)

This paper reports on the LEADER+ programme and on the work carried out supporting rural communities in EU countries under the LEADER+ programme. This is a programme that supports development in particularly vulnerable rural regions of the European countries that are members of the EU. It supports creative and innovative projects that can contribute to long-term and sustainable development in these regions. In this paper, we will focus on three specific areas: networking, facilitation of groups, and information and communication technologies. (...) Some case studies are shortly described. (shrink)

Sustainability has been the subject of prolonged debate within both academic and mainstream literature, rendered all the more heated because many of the disagreements come down to deep differences in values. These "value wars'' play out in decisions made about issues ranging from development and investment to livelihoods and agriculture. Using rural communities as the context for discussion, this article proposes new directions for this contested concept, based on the life code of values. These life values ground sustainability in a (...) multi-scalar web of everyday acts of human community. From this life-values perspective, compound terms such as sustainable agriculture and sustainable rural communities gain new meaning and offer the potential for the basis of a rural renaissance. (shrink)

In this article, the author draws from ethnographic field work with Mexican migrants in southwestern Montana, an emerging rural settlement of the Mountain West, to analyze the ways in which context of reception affects gender relations. The author constructs the analysis by looking at gender in terms of three primary elements of migrant incorporation: employment, geography, and culture. The author finds that in Montana traditional gender relations are typically fortified or reintroduced through the migration process, often to the detriment of (...) women. Yet women remain optimistic about their lives because they believe that in Montana they can be better mothers, providing safety and opportunities for their children that they could not provide elsewhere. The data challenge theorizing from urban settlements and highlight the significance of context of reception for constructions of gender and women’s experiences of power. (shrink)

The rural crisis of the 1980s is described in terms of the economic and social vulnerability of rural farm areas. The crisis is shown spreading from farms through families to rural communities, schools, churches, counties and beyond. Rural communities are shown to be undergoing dramatic and non-cyclical change. Criteria are defined to identify rural counties vulnerable to further economic losses and include: dependence on agriculture for jobs, inadequate off farm income, population losses, declines in residential and commercial property value, and (...) county fiscal crises due to loss of the tax base, delinquincies, and additional federal and state program changes and cutbacks. Social and economic distress are so extensive as to overwhelm conventional emergency intervention efforts to provide food, shelter, access to health care, and professional counseling. Peer support programs have been found to be effective at reaching farm families and helping them seek out the assistance of farm financial advisors, counselors, food shelves, and public assistance. Emerging attempts to link politically contending parties are discussed, specifically the Reinvest in Minnesota Coalition and the Rural Strategy Task Force consisting of major farm, church, and lending organizations. A strategy process and stakeholder analysis for local communities are presented together with recommendations for action that include creating a rural trend watch capability. (shrink)

A Rural Sanctuary is defined as an area where farming activity creates habitats for a diverse assemblage of species that find a broad spectrum of resources along the season. A Rural Sanctuary is proposed as a new model of land management to protect nature inside a framework of cultural identity and agro-forestry sustainability. A Rural Sanctuary has a dual mission: to provide immaterial and material resources for people, and to guarantee living spaces to a large assemblage of species. A Rural (...) Sanctuary represents an ecosemiotic agency in which human eco-fields and animal eco-fields interact. This reflects a model that is rooted in the Mediterranean region, where for long time people and nature have harmoniously lived in strict contact and inter-dependence. An example of a Rural Sanctuary from this region is proposed to demonstrate the amazing diversity of living beings observed on only few hectares of farmland. A Rural Sanctuary offers possibilities to educate people about a more sustainable approach to nature, and it represents a unique place to investigate animal perception. Finally, between the different approach to certify the validity of a Rural Sanctuary, sound recording is suggested as one of the less invasive methods for ecological investigation and long-term monitoring. (shrink)

The number of new “Special-post teachers” has decreased considerably, especially at China’s rural schools in recent years. This study applies the semi-structured interview data of new “Special-post teachers” in China’s rural schools to explore their perceptions on the rural new teachers’ problems and challenges at nine developing rural provinces in China. It finds that the new rural teachers were confronted with severe challenges and difficulties for their professional adaptability in rural areas, such as the interpersonal relationship, heavy workload and dissatisfied (...) salary, and unqualified teaching capacities. Those interviewed new “Special-post teachers” also learned lots from those challenges in reality, such as the diversified personality characteristics, professional beliefs and career motivation. It also suggested that, Chinese government should offer sufficient and diversified educational policies to stimulate rural teacher development, especially for new “Special-post Teachers” at rural areas. Chinese central government plays a significant role to guarantee the sustainable funding support for the development of new “Special-post teachers”. In addition, the principals in rural schools should pay close attention to new Special-post Teachers’ personability characteristics, hobbies and needs to create a supportive teaching environment for them to move toward successful rural teacher development. (shrink)

This book examines some of the changes that are taking place in Tok Pisin, an English-based pidgin, as it becomes the native language of the younger generation of rural and urban speakers.

The essay examines local resistance to the New Deal rural electrification program in the United States before World War II as a crucial aspect of sociotechnical change. Large numbers of farm men and women opposed the introduction of the new technology, did not purchase a full complement of electrical appliances, and did not use electric lights and appliances in the manner prescribed by the government modernisers and manufacturers. These acts of 'transformative resistance' helped to shape artefacts and social practices.

The expansion and transformation of Asian economies is producing class structures, roles and identities that could not easily be predicted from other times and places. The industrialisation of the countryside, in particular, generates new, rural middle classes which straddle the worlds of agriculture and industry in complex ways. Their class position is improvised on the basis of numerous influences and opportunities, and is in constant evolution. Enormous though its total population is, meanwhile, the rural middle class remains invisible to most (...) scholars and policymakers. Contested Capital is the first major work to shed light on an emerging transnational class comprised of many hundreds of millions of people. In India, the 'middle class' has become one of the key categories of economic analysis and developmental forecasting. The discussion suffers from one major oversight: it assumes that the middle class resides uniquely in the cities. As this book demonstrates, however, more than a third of India's middle class is rural, and 17 per cent of rural households belong to the middle class. The book brings this vast and dynamic population into view, so confronting some of the most crucial neglected questions of the contemporary global economy. (shrink)

This chapter presents a brief history of American Rural Sociology. It discusses the key early figures, such as C.J. Galpin, Kenyon Butterfield, Dwight Sanderson, and Thomas Carver Nixon. But the focus is on the next generation, and the distinctive institutional character of rural sociology as it developed in the twenties and thirties, and evolved in relation to events in the postwar period. Rural sociology shared many features with the “Social Survey” movement, including its commitment to community development, and to some (...) extent its methods. The “Survey Movement” petered out, for reasons having to do with the willingness of communities to subject themselves to the kind of scrutiny needed for reform. The community studies of Rural Sociology were caught between similar forces, and were also politically vulnerable. Postwar rural sociology responded to these vulnerabilities, but faced changes in agriculture that undermined the original purpose of im - proving rural life. The field nevertheless retained its commitment to engagement, and found new ways of doing so. In this respect, it deviated significantly from general, which had an acrimonious split from the survey movement. Ironically, however, general sociology has returned to engagement, at a time that rural sociology has lost its original subject matter and raison d’être. (shrink)

Purpose This study aims to explore how health informatics can underpin the successful delivery of recovery-orientated healthcare, in rural and remote regions, to achieve better mental health outcomes. Recovery is an extremely social process that involves being with others and reconnecting with the world. Design/methodology/approach An interpretivist study involving 27 clinicians and 13 clients sought to determine how future expenditure on ehealth could improve mental health treatment and service provision in the western Murray Darling Basin of New South Wales, Australia. (...) Findings Through the use of targeted ehealth strategies, it is possible to increase both the accessibility of information and the quality of service provision. In small communities, the challenges of distance, access to healthcare and the ease of isolating oneself are best overcome through a combination of technology and communal social responsibility. Technology supplements but cannot completely replace face-to-face interaction in the mental health recovery process. Originality/value The recovery model provides a conceptual framework for health informatics in rural and remote regions that is socially responsible. Service providers can affect better recovery for clients through infrastructure that enables timely and responsive remote access whilst driving between appointments. This could include interactive referral services, telehealth access to specialist clinicians, GPS for locating clients in remote areas and mobile coverage for counselling sessions in “real time”. Thus, the technology not only provides better connections but also adds to the responsiveness of any treatment available. (shrink)

Nigeria is a developing country with youths that have great potentials. They embrace new innovations easily. In Anambra State of Nigeria alone, there are eight (8) higher institutions. It was observed that in the rural areas recently, youths indulge in drug taking and other anti-social acts. Many of them are dropout from schools. The rural libraries could play big roles by reverting them to skillful living again that is by equipping the libraries with information resources that would interest the youths (...) and attract them back to complete their education. A questionnaire titled “Using the rural library for youth development” was constructed and distributed among the youths and librarians in five (5) villages that have rural libraries. 300 copies of questionnaire was made and distributed. 235 respondents were gotten. The response rate became 78%. Findings were made. It was suggested that the government should build and equip the rural libraries to modern standard, provide current materials and also employ more librarians to work there. (shrink)

The intrinsic dynamics andinnovative potential of the rural poor in Chinacan be illustrated by the phenomena of farmerinnovation circles in north Shaanxi.These are informal networks used by farmers tocollaborate on technology learning andagricultural production. Though not limited tospecific geographic locations, these circlesare particularly important in the marginalareas of rural China where the complexity ofthe geographic environment, the diversity offarmer demands, and the inefficiency of formalagricultural extension networks impede thespread of new agricultural technologies. Socialconnectedness in the form of householdcommunication networks, technology (...) learninggroups, and inter-village links aids people's collective capacity to work together. In thestudy of 50 villages in this remote region, itwas found that households with more connectionswere more likely to adopt a range of newtechnologies, and so had higher income. Adetailed case study shows how collective actioncan lead to environmental improvements thatfurther increase incomes. It is concluded thatif there is to be sustainable development inthe marginal areas of China, then there willclearly need to be closer communication andinteraction between agricultural professionalsand rural communities. (shrink)

The article examines the effect of cooking food in kitchens on the health of women, as women and children are at a greater risk to indoor air pollution (IAP). It is important to study the cooking practices and prevalent behaviours among African women to understand the magnitude of the danger they face. The study suggests that a decline in the combustion of solid fuels and the use of clean energy can improve health among women and children, as well as sustainability (...) goals. Proverbs 17:22 says, ‘A joyful heart is the health of the body, but a depressed spirit dries up the bones’. Bible verse Numbers 35:33–34 indicates, ‘You shall not pollute the land in which you live’. The cooking fuel analysis framework among rural women in Africa will guide forward the governments’ sustainability policies for communities to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being of women and children. Contribution: The article conducts a comprehensive analysis of the literature on African cooking practices. A combined search string is made with keywords. Thematic content analysis is conducted with NVivo (produced by QSR International). The article covers two themes, namely improved well-being and suggesting policies to combat climate change and its impacts. Policies and schemes at grassroots levels and better economic conditions in African countries can help to overcome challenges and change health-damaging cooking behaviours. The new advanced sustainability analysis framework has the potential to influence modern kitchen fuels and increase the adoption of new technologies in African villages. (shrink)

Ethiopian agriculture is changing as new actors, relationships, and policies influence the ways in which small-scale, resource-poor farmers access and use information and knowledge in their agricultural production decisions. Although these changes suggest new opportunities for smallholders, too little is known about how changes will ultimately improve the wellbeing of smallholders in Ethiopia. Thus, we examine whether these changes are improving the ability of smallholders to innovate and thus improve their own welfare. In doing so, we analyze interactions between smallholders (...) and other actors to provide new perspectives on the role played by smallholder innovation networks in the agricultural sector by drawing on data from community case studies conducted in 10 localities. Findings suggest that public extension and administration exert a strong influence over smallholder networks, potentially crowding out market-based and civil society actors, and thus limiting beneficial innovation processes. From a policy perspective, the findings suggest the need to further explore policies and programs that create more space for market and civil society to participate in smallholder innovation networks and improve welfare. From a conceptual and methodological perspective, our findings suggest the need to incorporate rigorous applications of social network analysis into the application of innovation systems theory. (shrink)

El desarrollo local desde principios de los años noventa se encuentra influenciado por una corriente sociológica que propone el replanteamiento teórico de lo que la teoría ha llamado el sector rural. La Nueva Ruralidad en su perspectiva latinoamericana ubica aspectos de cambio fundamental en el territorio rural: encadenamientos urbano-rurales, el empleo rural no agrícola, la provisión de servicios ambientales, las certificaciones agroambientales o “sellos verdes”, los pueblos como centros de servicios, el papel activo de las comunidades y organizaciones sociales, y (...) la diversidad ecológica-cultural como patrimonio (Rojas, 2008). El objetivo de este documento es mostrar que existe un debate al interior de esta corriente que ha derivado en dos modelos de desarrollo regional sustentable contrapuestos, el enfoque basado en la participación del mercado y el que aboga por la autonomía, la autogestión y la autodirección del progreso de las comunidades rurales. (shrink)

Along with national data, this book uses two detailed questionnaires which were administered to older Americans in Allegany County, New York in 1983 and 1987 as the basis for exploring the public lives of rural older Americans. The authors discuss the factors that shape the political views and behavior of the rural elderly, consulting social, economic, health and nutritional variables.

This paper draws upon the events surrounding two small United States Department of Agriculture-funded projects in order to explore some preliminary ideas about the influence of corporations in US policy-making through federal advisory committees created by the 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act. Following a synopsis of the political controversy created by the efforts of these projects to generate more discussion of geographical indications in the US, this paper outlines a path for further analysis of the relationships between members of advisory (...) committees to the US Trade Representative and a newly established non-profit, the Consortium for Common Food Names. After a brief discussion of two worlds of geographic indications defined on the one hand by key principles of terroir and on the other hand those embodied in US Patent & Trademark Policy, the paper concludes with short discussions of two approaches for bringing geographic indications into federal and state policy discussions. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Pains And Gains Of Rural Health Practice:Lessons Books Never TaughtSridevi Seetharam, Bindu Balasubramaniam, G. S. Kumar, and M. R. SeetharamHow The Journey BeganIn the early 1980s, as fresh graduates from Mysore Medical College in southern India, we were brimming with a zeal to "cure the sick" and "change the world." We had an ideal of evidence-based, rational, ethical and equitable health care and set out to serve rural and (...) under-served communities which included displaced forest-based tribes. In the initial years, with the naivety of the inexperienced, we believed that by correcting the dehydration of the doe-eyed six-year-old Mare and giving her a free course of antibiotics, we had made health care accessible to her. Much to our dismay, within a month, Mare was back in the outpatient clinic, with diarrhea all over again and looking thinner than ever. We realized that it was a losing battle to keep her healthy as long as she continued to drink water from the same contaminated stream, live in unhygienic surroundings, and eat only the paltry meals that her family could barely afford. We gradually began to connect these living examples to what our preventive medicine text books had stressed all along—there are many social determinants of health which, if left unaddressed, do not permit realization of the vision of health for all.Such instances continually pulled us out of the hospital building and into the villages and tribal hamlets. We discovered that our textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine (Park, 1986) (P&SM as we used to call it), was our most valuable possession. [End Page 106] We devoured the descriptions of national health programs, sanitation procedures, water treatment protocols, and maintenance of cold chain for vaccines with a completely new perspective. We discovered the Manual of Basic Techniques for a Health Laboratory, (World Health Organization, 1980) detailing how to set up a laboratory with low cost, reliable and simple methods. We learned to drive a jeep to haul supplies and patients. To step up the level of clinical care, some of us pursued post-graduate programs and equipped ourselves to provide more specialized care too. It has been over two decades since we embarked on this journey. We have encountered a variety of perplexing dilemmas with no clear solutions. We have sometimes been compelled to adopt health practices that were not really evidence-based, seemingly irrational, inequitable and even downright unethical. This narration describes only a few of our thousands of cases, and hopefully conveys our periods of self-doubt, despair and hope, as well as, the challenges we face to reconcile with the difficult choices we are forced to make every day.Unforeseen Challenges in Saving Mothers and ChildrenHigh maternal and child mortality rates have been one of the most disturbing aspects of the health care scenario in rural India. To ensure immunization of all children, health workers with vaccine carriers go from village to village and hamlet to hamlet to reach those infants that would have missed visits to the immunization clinics. Our grass-root workers facilitate these visits by identifying households with such children. Occasionally, they encounter families who spirit away the infant into the adjoining woods as soon as the health worker is seen approaching, and blandly proclaim that the child is not at home. Despite reassurance and counseling about the safety and necessity of the vaccine, their apprehensions and misconceptions are insurmountable. What is the extent of the responsibility of the health worker? Is it ethical to hunt down the child and force the administration of the vaccine in view of the public health gains, besides the child's welfare?A few months ago, a pre-term neonate was admitted to our hospital, but worsened and needed referral to a higher centre in the city. The family refused to go despite repeated persuasion and detailed explanation about the technical limitations of care at our centre. From the family's perspective, the variety of social, cultural, and monetary challenges they would face in the city were themselves limitations for care. We were compelled to retain the baby and continue giving the best care we could.Two... (shrink)

This chapter provides an overview of the historical background as well as philosophical outlook behind the twentieth-century Confucian thinker Liang Shuming’s 梁漱溟 (1893–1988) engagement with the movement for “rural reconstruction” (xiangcun jianshe 鄉村建設) which took off during the 1930s in Republican China. After situating Liang’s turn toward the countryside and his activities in Shandong province as leader of the Institute for Rural Reconstruction in their broader socio-political context and his own trajectory as an intellectual and reformer, I describe and analyze (...) the complex constellation of cultural, historical, social, political, and economic elements in his 1937 Theory of Rural Reconstruction (Xiangcun jianshe lilun 鄉村建設理論). In doing so, I pay particular attention to the relation between Liang’s idiosyncratic reinterpretation of premodern China’s social order as grounded in an affirmation of “reason” (lixing 理性) and his vision for a form of “national self-awakening” (minzu zijue 民族自覺) rooted in the countryside as a place where the traditional Confucian primacy of “ethical relations” (lunli 倫理) has supposedly been preserved. In conclusion, I argue that Liang’s idea of rural “collective life” (tuanti shenghuo 團體生活) as the basis for a wholly new form of society counts as a non-state-centered approach to modernization which continues to resonate in contemporary postrevolutionary China. (shrink)

The process of transition in rural economy has been observed with the deepest and fastest structural transformation from farm to non-farm sector in Pakistan. The structure and composition of labour market is also undergoing such considerable changes due to increasing share of the non-farm sector. Given this insight, the study assesses the change in rural economy particularly relying on population and migration trend and employment transition. The descriptive analysis of the study reveals that thereis declining trend in migration from rural (...) to urban areas with a considerable transition in employment from farm to non-farm sectors. The factor analysis points out the fact that push incentives of the farm sector are stronger than the pull incentives of the nonfarm sector for the movement of labour away from the farm sector in Pakistan. Hence, an immense focus is required for the farm sector in the lieu of employment opportunity while creating more diversification in non-farm activities in rural areas. Thus, there is also a dire need to enhance occupational activities such as agro-based processing, new farming practices, livestock, small scale manufacturing, retail trade, construction etc. to enhance the earnings of labour in the rural economy. (shrink)

Across two studies, a wide age range of participants was interviewed about the nature of death. All participants were living in rural Madagascar in a community where ancestral beliefs and practices are widespread. In Study 1, children (8–17 years) and adults (19–71 years) were asked whether bodily and mental processes continue after death. The death in question was presented in the context of a narrative that focused either on the corpse or on the ancestral practices associated with the afterlife. Participants (...) aged 8 years and older claimed that death brings an end to most bodily and mental processes. Nevertheless, particularly in the context of the religious narrative, they claimed that certain mental processes continue even after death. This assertion of an afterlife was more evident among adults than children, especially with respect to cognitive processes, such as knowing and remembering. In Study 2, 5‐ and 7‐year‐olds were asked similar questions in connection with the death of a bird and a person. Seven‐year‐olds consistently claimed that bodily and mental processes cease at death, whereas 5‐year‐olds were unsystematic in their replies. Together, the two studies replicate and extend findings obtained with Western children showing that, in the course of development, different conceptions of death are elaborated—a biological conception in which death terminates living processes and a religious conception in which death marks the beginning of a new form of spiritual existence. (shrink)

Sweetpotato-pig production is an important system that generates income, utilizes unmarketable crops, and provides manure for soil fertility maintenance. This system is widely practiced from Asia to Africa, with many local variations. Within this system, pigs are generally fed a low nutrient-dense diet, yielding low growth rates and low economic efficiency. Our project in Vietnam went through a process of situation analysis, participatory technology development (PTD), and scaling up over a seven-year period to improve sweetpotato-pig production and to disseminate developed (...) technologies. The situation analysis included a series of pig production assessments in several provinces in northern and southern Vietnam, and pig supply-market chain identification was conducted in 13 provinces. The analysis of these studies informed the project of the following: (1) appropriate locations for our activities; (2) seasonal available feedstuff and farmers’ feeding practices; (3) market fluctuation and requirements; and (4) feeding and management improvement needs based on which the subsequent phase of PTD was designed. The PTD involved a limited number of farmers participating in sweetpotato varietal selection, sweetpotato root and vine silage processing, seasonal feeding combination, and pig feeding with balanced crop-feed diet and silage. Six years of multi-location and multi-season sweetpotato selection resulted in a few promising varieties that yielded up to 75% more dry matter and have since been formally released. The most significant results of silage processing and feeding trials include improved growth, higher feeding efficiency, increased year-round local feedstuff, and considerable labor reduction from eliminated cooking and vine cutting. Once these technologies were developed, a farmer-to-farmer training model was designed for scaling up the adoption and impact. Farmer trainers from seven communes in seven provinces received training in these technologies. In turn, they undertook the responsibility of training other farmers on sweetpotato selection, processing, and feeding. An impact study was also administered to monitor and evaluate (M&E) the dissemination process and to document the impact of the new technologies and farmer-to-farmer training model on pig growth and farmer income generation. The results showed that both participating and non-participating farmers have taken up the technologies, although the former demonstrates higher rates of adoption than the latter. The participants also generated more income and saved more labor from the adoption of the technologies. While the scaling up and M&E activities are on-going, the project has since broadened from a sweetpotato-pig system perspective to a pig-cropfeed system perspective based on farmers’ needs. It has included other crop feeds such as cassava and peanut stems in the research portfolio. New technologies based on on-going PTD will continuously be incorporated into the future training curriculum. (shrink)

This is a review of Mu Peng's recent book on popular religion in rural China.

Rural homestay is an important driver for developing rural tourism, which still grows against the wind in the post-epidemic era of the COVID-19 virus and shows unique attributes that are different from those of the traditional hospitality industry. Based on the five-dimensional model of fine service theory, this study introduces culture as a unique dimension to construct a six-dimensional model of rural homestay fine service and explores the influencing mechanism of rural homestay fine service on customer loyalty. This study successively (...) used expert interviews and questionnaires to develop the structural equation model through SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0. The results showed that culture, as a unique attribute of rural homestay, is another important factor influencing the level of rural homestay fine service besides privacy, responsiveness, empathy, comfort, and psychological quality. Customer emotion of rural homestays significantly impacts customer loyalty and fully mediates the relationship between fine service and customer loyalty. This study verifies the effectiveness of fine service theory in the research of rural homestay good service and provides a new measuring tool, which has the potential to enrich and develop the exploration of fine service. (shrink)