Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Rural–urban inequality and the practice of promoting sustainability in contemporary China

  • Published:
GeoJournal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article focuses on the rural–urban inequality and its impacts on the meanings and practices of sustainability in Chinese context, based on a qualitative analysis of 30 semi-structure interviews with key practitioners. This research understands sustainability to be ‘simultaneously an ideological stance, a point of convergence for political struggles, and a measure of performance for development activities’ (Sneddon in Progr Hum Geogr 24(4):521–549, 2000). The main argument suggests that an appreciation of the need to reduce the rural–urban inequality can add new meanings to the Chinese interpretation and practice of sustainability. In Chinese context, a sustainable future is not about maintaining the current social and environmental status for future generations, but rather, it refers to improving environmental quality and promoting social and environmental justice in the future. That is, creating a better future through transforming the Chinese society from a polluted and rural–urban divided society with low-level suzhi population into a green, civilised and thriving one is the core of its sustainable development. Theoretically, this work indicates that the ways of building links between rural and urban can be multiple and dynamic. And more broadly, this research uses a Chinese case study to indicate that complex spatial relationships and interactions should be taken into considerations in sustainability studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Afridi, F., Li, S. X., & Ren, Y. (2015). Social identity and inequality: The impact of China’s Hukou system. Journal of Public Economics, 123, 17–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akkoyunlu, Ş. (2015). The potential of rural–urban linkages for sustainable development and trade. International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Policy, 4(2), 20–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bain, R. E., Wright, J. A., Christenson, E., & Bartram, J. K. (2014). Rural: Urban inequalities in post 2015 targets and indicators for drinking-water. Science of the Total Environment, 490, 509–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balme, R. (2014). Mobilising for environmental justice in China. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, 36(3), 173–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barry, B. (1997). Sustainability and intergenerational justice. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, 89, 43–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cai, F. (2007). Rural–urban income gap and critical point of institutional change. Economic Change and Restructuring, 40, 189–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chang, I.-C., & Sheppard, E. (2013). China’s eco-cities as variegated urban sustainability: Dongtan eco-city and Chongming eco-island. Journal of Urban Technology, 20(1), 57–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, H. E. (1990). Toward some operational principles of sustainable development. Ecological Economics, 2(1), 1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Debolini, M., Valette, E., Francois, M., & Chery, J.-P. (2015). Mapping land use competition in the rural–urban fringe and future perspectives on land policies: A case study of Meknes (Morocco). Land Use Policy, 47, 373–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eaton, S., & Kostka, G. (2014). Authoritarian environmentalism undermined? Local leaders’ time horizons and environmental policy implementation in China. The China Quarterly, 218, 359–380.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, G. A., Reid, L., & Hunter, C. (2015). Environmental justice, capabilities, and the theorization of well-being. Progress in Human Geography, 40(6), 754–769.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fu, Q., & Ren, Q. (2010). Educational inequality under China’s rural–urban divide: The hukou system and return to education. Environment and Planning A, 42, 592–610.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, X., Marinova, D., & Hong, J. (2013). China’s shifting policies towards sustainability: A low-carbon economy and environmental protection. Journal of Contemporary China, 22(81), 428–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hannum, E., Wang, M., & Adams, J. (2010). Rural–urban disparities in access to primary and secondary education under market reforms. In M. K. Whyte (Ed.), One country, two societies (pp. 125–146). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Holdaway, J. (2010). Environment and Health in China: An introduction to an emerging research field. Journal of Contemporary China, 19(63), 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keith, M., Lash, S., Arnoldi, J., & Rooker, T. (2014). China constructing capitalism. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kythreotis, A., & Jonas, A. (2012). Scaling sustainable development? How voluntary groups negotiate spaces of sustainability governance in the United Kingdom. Environment and Planning D, 30, 381–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larondelle, N., & Haase, D. (2013). Urban ecosystem services assessment along a rural–urban gradient: A cross analysis of European cities. Ecological Indicators, 29, 179–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerner, A. M., & Eakin, H. (2011). An obsolete dichotomy? Rethinking the rural–urban interface in terms of food security and production on the global south. The Geographical Journal, 177, 311–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, Y., & Liu, Y. (2013). Investigation of resource and environment issues in the urban–rural transition in China. Economic Geography, 33(1), 61–65 (in Chinese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Z. (2005). Institution and inequality: The Hukou system in China. Journal of Comparative Economics, 33(1), 133–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, C., Valentine, G., Vanderbeck, R. M., McQuaid, K., & Diprose, K. (2018). Placing ‘sustainability’ in context: Narratives of sustainable consumption in Nanjing, China. Social & Cultural Geography, 2, 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Long, H., Zou, J., Pykett, J., & Li, Y. (2011). Analysis of rural transformation development in China since the turn of the new millennium. Applied Geography, 31(3), 1094–1105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma, L. (2007). From China’s urban social space to social and environmental justice. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 48(5), 555–566.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma, C. B. (2010). Who bears the environmental burden in China? An analysis of the distribution of industrial pollution sources. Ecological Economics, 69, 1869–1876.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manderscheid, K. (2012). Planning sustainability: Intergenerational and intragenerational justice in spatial planning strategies. Antipode, 44(1), 197–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marsden, T. (2013). Sustainable place-making for sustainability science: The contested case of agri-food and urban–rural relations. Sustainability Science, 8(2), 213–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marton, A., & McGee, T. (2017). Mega-urbanization in China: Rural–urban synthesis as a foundation for sustainability. The Global Studies Journal, 10(2), 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGee, T. G. (2008). Managing the rural–urban transformation in East Asia in the 21st century. Sustainability Science, 3, 155–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Page, E. (2007a). Intergenerational justice of what: Welfare, resource or capabilities? Environmental Politics, 16(3), 453–468.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Page, E. (2007b). Justice between generations: Investigating a sufficientarian approach. Journal of Global Ethics, 3(1), 3–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qian, X., & Smyth, R. (2008). Measuring regional inequality of education in China: Widening coast–inland gap or widening rural–urban gap? Journal of International Development, 20(2), 132–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radford, K. G., & James, P. (2013). Changes in the value of ecosystem services along a rural–urban gradient: A case study of Greater Manchester, UK. Landscape and Urban Planning, 109(1), 117–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rimmer, P. (2002). Overview: Restructuring Chinese space in the new millennium. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 43(1), 1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rooij, B. V. (2010). The people vs. pollution: Understanding citizen action against pollution in China. Journal of Contemporary China, 19(63), 55–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A., & Nussbaun, M. C. (1993). The quality of life. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sicular, T., Yue, X., Gustafsson, B., & Li, S. (2007). The urban–rural income gap and inequality in China. Review of Income and Wealth, 53(1), 93–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sneddon, C. (2000). ‘Sustainability’ in ecological economics, ecology and livelihoods: A review. Progress in Human Geography, 24(4), 521–549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solinger, D. (1993). China’s transients and the state: A form of civil society? Politics and Society, 21, 98–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Song, M., Yang, J., & Yang, T. (2010). The improvement of social security system and socioeconomic sustainable development in China: Statistical analysis based on rural–urban differences and regional disparities. Journal of Public Management, 7(2), 28–38 (in Chinese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, P. J. (2007). Space and sustainability: An exploratory essay on the production of social spaces through city-work. The Geographical Journal, 173(3), 197–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Voinov, A. (2008). Understanding and communicating sustainability: Global versus regional perspectives. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 10(4), 487–501.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Y., Liu, Y., Li, Y., & Li, T. (2016). The spatio-temporal patterns of urban–rural development transformation in China since 1990. Habitat International, 53, 178–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, C. D., & Shackleton, C. M. (2016). Natural resource use, incomes, and poverty along the rural–urban continuum of two medium-sized, South African Towns. World Development, 78, 80–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, X., & Treiman, D. J. (2007). Inequality and equality under Chinese socialism: The hukou system and intergenerational occupational mobility. American Journal of Sociology, 113(2), 415–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Y., & Liu, Y. (2016). Progress in China’s sustainable development research: Contribution of Chinese geographers. Journal of Geographical Science, 26(8), 1176–1196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, S., & McGhee, D. (2014). Social policies and ethic conflict in China: Lessons from Xinjiang. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, J., & Xu, X. (1999). Viewing urban sustainable development from the angle of land use in rural–urban fringe: A case study of Guangzhou city. Urban Planning Forum, 3, 15–21 (in Chinese).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding this award under the Care for the Future programme (Grant No. AH/K006215/1).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Chen Liu

  2. The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Gill Valentine & Kristina Diprose

  3. University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Robert M. Vanderbeck & Katie McQuaid

Authors
  1. Chen Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gill Valentine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Robert M. Vanderbeck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Kristina Diprose
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Katie McQuaid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chen Liu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liu, C., Valentine, G., Vanderbeck, R.M. et al. Rural–urban inequality and the practice of promoting sustainability in contemporary China. GeoJournal 84, 1187–1198 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-018-9915-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-018-9915-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation