Conference Agenda

China's rural society and landscape have undergone fundamental transformations over the past few decades, such as the massive rural-urban migration, the ageing of the remaining rural population, but also the substantial improvement of rural welfare. While the country has made remarkable progress, notably in poverty alleviation - extreme poverty was officiallz eradicated by 2021 - rural areas still face many issues. The main challenges are income disparity, inadequate infrastructure, deficiency in rural healthcare, chronic rural-urban divide, and environmental degradation.

The Chinese government has implemented a slew of policies to address these challenges, with the Rural Revitalization Strategy being one of the most prominent. Launched in 2018, this comprehensive strategy aims to modernize agriculture, improve rural infrastructure, and enhance the quality of life for rural residents. The latest Rural Comprehensive Revitalization Plan (2024-2027) continues these efforts, focusing on sustainable farming, food security, and closing the urban-rural gap in income and access to services. In detail, this new plan particularly emphasizes technological innovation, green transformation, infrastructure upgrades, and agricultural and rural digitalization. Meanwhile, how far new policies and development plans will bring about the desired changes, remains to be tested along with empirical evidence.

The rapid and massive rural transformation in China has drawn significant attention from researchers. While the development in the past decades has been well-researched, future challenges will be even more diverse and require a multi-dimensional assessment. This proposed session aims to engage its participants in the complex assessment of China's current and future rural development. The centre of our attention will be synergies and potential tradeoffs in the areas of rural revitalization, rural-urban migration, rural livelihood, social inequality, and a sustainable countryside. By bringing together experts from various research fields, the session will provide a glimpse into China’s rural transformation and help us understand the current state and future prospects of China's rural areas.

The session will consist of expert presentations, panel discussions, and interactive Q&A sessions to encourage meaningful dialogue and the exchange of ideas. We plan to have short presentations to leave more time for open discussions in panel form.