Rethinking Urban-rural Interactions in China’s Agricultural Development: Beyond the Urban Bias?
Friday 3 – Sunday 5 April 2009
Organiser: Department of East Asian Studies, University of Leeds and National Institute of Chinese Studies, White Rose East Asian Centre, UK
Hosted at the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Conference theme
China has witnessed remarkable economic growth, unprecedented industrialisation and urbanisation, and dramatic transformations of the urban and rural development landscape since the initiation of the market reforms three decades ago. The impact on the rest of the world has been huge, catching the attention of academics, development practitioners and policy makers worldwide. A large and still growing body of research has been devoted to investigate and understand China’s phenomenal growth and its broader implications, while relatively less effort has been dedicated to critically analyse and reflect on the many dilemmas of rapid growth and drastic societal change, including particularly the ever widening urban-rural inequalities that have in many ways overlapped with inter- and intra-regional disparities, and separated urban and rural societies in all conceivable dimensions. The challenges that this poses to the realisation of the larger development vision – the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), at both the global and national level – the promotion of human well-being and the widening of the choices and freedoms for all Chinese citizens, have yet to be fully confronted.
Topics under this broad conference theme may include the following:
- Exploring theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding urban-rural relations and interactions, as well as their policy implications for urban-rural integration in China;
- Historical experiences of agricultural and rural development in China and beyond;
- Examining and comparing the differences and similarities of agricultural and rural development, industrialisation and urbanisation processes, and the dynamics of urban-rural interactions in the Chinese Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and the rest of the world and mutual lessons to be learned;
- Charting and comparing the various aspects in respect of the complexities, diversity and dynamics of the urban-rural ‘divide’ or ‘integration’ across time and space in China drawing on empirical evidence;
- Exploring the theoretical, methodological, empirical and policy relevance of a risk perspective on agricultural and rural development or urban-rural integration;
- Globalisation and its impact on local processes in China’s agricultural and rural development;
- Examining the institutional and social contexts where urban-rural differences have been sustained, reproduced or reshaped in respect of resources and their (re)distribution, rights and entitlements, fiscal reforms, policies and practice; kinship, family, marriage and gender relations;
- Livelihoods, rural-urban and rural-rural migration and linkages, rural entrepreneurship, social capital, and social networks and connections in China.