Tag Archives: Rural Rejuvenation

Back to the field!

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Finally, after a far too long break, field research in China was possible again. Together with collaboration partner Song Yu from Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University in Suzhou (China), in August and September 2023, Elena Meyer-Clement was able to re-visit fieldsites in peri-urban areas of Suzhou (Jiangsu Province), and Huzhou (Zhejiang Province), and discover new sites in the surroundings. The focus lay on grassroots governance changes in the urbanization process that in China mostly takes the form of resettlement of rural residents to new urban residential areas. At the same time, current policies focus on rural revitalization and the remodeling of villages for tourism. The simultaneity of both processes is fascinating and provided us with lots of food for thought about how policies attempt to prompt and steer societal change in China. We look forward to formulating our thoughts in upcoming publications!

A peri-urban area in Suzhou, 2018…
…and 2023 (same place, different angle) (Photo credits: Elena Meyer-Clement)
How to turn a village into a tourist attraction? An attempt in Zhejiang Province, 2023 (Photo credit: Elena Meyer-Clement)

Visit to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Guangzhou

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In October, Elena Meyer-Clement met with researchers at Nanjing Agricultural University, Fudan University (Shanghai) and Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou) to discuss first findings of the project and talk about possible future research collaboration.

Here are reports on her lectures at Nanjing Agricultural University and at Sun Yat-sen University (in Chinese).

She also participated in field trips with Prof SONG Yu (Xi’an Jiaotong – Liverpool University) to model villages and an urbanizing town in the region of the prefectural city Huzhou, Zhejiang Province.

A “beautiful village” in Zhejiang Province

A residential community in an urbanizing town close to the prefectural city of Huzhou, Zhejiang Province

(Photo credits: Elena Meyer-Clement)

 

Panel discussion at IAMO Forum 2019

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In June 2019, Elena Meyer-Clement was invited as a panelist at the IAMO Forum 2019 at Halle (Saale), Germany. The topic of the panel discussion was “Current challenges and way forward for Chinese agriculture after 40 years of rural reform”. In this multidisciplinary panel, Elena presented her thoughts on the role of urbanization and the concentration of rural housing space in China’s ongoing “rural revitalization strategy”.

 

Paper on “Rural Rejuvenation” presented at annual ASC meeting

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In November, Elena Meyer-Clement and René Trappel presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Working Group of Social Science China Research (Arbeitskreis Sozialwissenschaftliche Chinaforschung, ASC) in the German Association of Asian Studies (DGA) in Göttingen. The title was “From ‘New Socialist Countryside’ to ‘Rural Rejuvenation’: What is new in rural China?”.

The paper compares the strategy of Rural Rejuvenation under Xi Jinping with the Building of a New Socialist Countryside in Hu Jintao’s administration, particularly from the Foucauldian perspective of governmentality. The paper argues that the Rural Rejuvenation strategy introduces new approaches to optimize and modernize the rural population, with direct state interference on the retreat and increasing use of offering new rights and benefits.

(From left to right: Moderator Daniel Fuchs, René, and Elena. Credit: Author)