经济地理学中的农户研究

RURAL HOUSEHOLD STUDY IN ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY: AN IMPORTANT AND OVERLOOKED THEME IN CHINA

中国目前约有2/3的人口生活在农村,农村地区的发展成为中国区域发展中令人关注的大问题。然而,经济地理学在农区发展的研究中,存在一个明显的缺陷,既大多数研究均忽视了农区经济中最基本的单位-农户。文章分析了忽视农户对地理学研究的局限,论述了农户与农区的关系,评述了国内外的相关研究成果,提出在经济地理学的农户研究中,应加强农户发展环境研究、基于农户的农区发展模型研究、农户与地理环境相互作用研究、基于农户的农区发展战略研究。

China's two-third population is living in rural area. Development in rural area appears significant and problematic in China's overall modernization. As the household, both a consumer and a producer, is the main organization in the rural areas of China, it is unlikely to entirely understand rural development without study on rural households. In particular, under China's strategy to build a well-off society in an all-round way in the first twenty years of this century, the theme of rural household study appears notably important. In current situation, however, households are overlooked in most economic geography studies, particularly in those pertinent to the rural area. This paper reveals the limitations from unequal treatment of households in rural development, and emphasizes the special roles played by households in the rural area. Especially, the strong relationship may highly likely exist between rural households and rural economic growth, and between rural households and development orientation of rural area. After a critical review on relevant works and articles, several important research themes are suggested for undertaking household studies. Firstly, the relationship between environment and rural household development should be explored. Given China's great regional differentiation, results from this study may show substantial contribution to international research. Secondly, modeling of rural development from perspective of individual households is expected to evaluate the side effects of rural industrialization and urbanization. Thirdly, by considering the preference of households in designing their future, a new framework of rural development may be proposed in regional and strategic planning.