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This book is about the practice of rural development in contemporary China. It evolves the concept of 'neo-exogenous development' to explain how the power of the state links to community action via local party structures, in pursuit of both state-building and rural revitalisation.
Through case studies, the book examines how central government investments are channelled through area-based programmes, which are then locally implemented by party-state and community actors. It illustrates significant continuity in China's rural development, from the Imperial era, through the Maoist Collectivization Movement, and onwards to the Open Reform and current National Rural Revitalization Strategy.
Advancing Rural Development in China re-evaluates the theory and practice of rural development, identifying important lessons for other nations.
The book presents a critical study of China's approach to rural development for students and researchers in the fields of human geography, rural sociology, planning, agricultural economics, public management, and international development.
List of contents
1. Introduction - Advancing Rural Development 2. Chinese Rural Development in International Context 3. Government, Governance, and Marginalization in Rural China 4. Rural Development and Integration - Evolving State-Community Relations in China 5. Rural Revitalization and Neo-Exogenous Development 6. The Village Cases and Research Approach 7. The Binding Village: Lanjing and Its Evolving Bamboo Industry 8. The Striving Village: Qianjiachi and Its Orange MAZ 9. The Receiving Village: Yangmatang's Fruit Industry 10. Neo-Exogenous Development: Advancing Development or Projecting Power? 11. State and Community in Rural China
About the author
is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China, and a Research Fellow at the Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute. His research interests lie in integrated territorial development, with an emphasis on urban-rural linkages, social innovation, and spatial planning. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London (UCL), and a member of the Key Laboratory of Intelligent Territorial Spatial Planning Technology, Ministry of Natural Resources, China. Shengxi is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.
Nick Gallent is Professor of Housing and Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, UK. His research is mainly focused on housing delivery and planning systems, but often links across to community engagement with planning, and regularly looks at rural communities and places. He has published a number of books on these topics, the most recent being Rural Places and Planning: Stories from the Global Countryside (Policy Press, 2022),Village Housing: Constraints and Opportunities in Rural England (UCL Press, 2022), Rural Planning Futures (Routledge, 2025) and Postcapitalist Countrysides (UCL Press, 2025). Nick is a Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and the UK's Academy of Social Sciences.
Li Zhang is an Associate Professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, and Chief Planner at the Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute. He directs Tongji's Urban Construction Cadre Training Centre, jointly established with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the Territorial Spatial Planning Training Centre, jointly established with the Ministry of Natural Resources. and serves as Secretary-General of the Small-Town Planning Academic Committee of the Urban Planning Society of China. His work spans strategic and spatial planning, urbanization, and village- and town-planning; he has published over 100 papers and more than ten books, and has led multiple award-winning planning and design projects.
Short Bios for back page:Shengxi Xin is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China, and a Research Fellow at the Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute;
Nick Gallent is Professor of Housing and Planning at University College London, United Kingdom;
Li Zhang is an Associate Professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China, and Chief Planner at the Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute.
