How do China's villages self-organize collective land use under the background of rural revitalization? A multi-case study in Zhejiang, Fujian and Guizhou provinces

Abstract

As land is one of the most important production factors in rural areas, it is becoming an important challenge for rural revitalization strategy to realize land value and promote the socioeconomic development of villages through the collective action of self-organized collective land use. Various studies have discussed the relationships among land governance, rural revitalization and self-organization, but few studies have focused on village cadres' roles and village rules. This paper aims to establish an analytical framework to explore these two operating mechanisms of self-organization in collective land use. Two villages in eastern China and one village in western China are selected as typical cases to demonstrate how collective land use is self-organized by village cadres' roles and village rules. The results indicate that village cadres play roles in the entrepreneurial spirit and resource access capacity to promote village economic and social development. In the utilization of collective land for farmers to live in peace and work happily, the configuration of rules at the village level to regulate the behaviour of villagers is a qualification on demand and “see who can take part”, cost sharing and benefit sharing, graduated sanction and supervision. The analysis in this article may provide an understanding of the mechanism driving the promotion and improvement of land self-organization, which has important policy implications for China and other developing countries adopting this mode to promote regional economic development in rural areas.