On integrated urban and rural development

Cities and the countryside have long been an inseparable organic whole.China's new model of high-quality urbanization requires integrated urban and rural development and rural vitalization.Problems inherent to urban areas are caused by problems inherent to rural areas,and vice versa.Such problems are closely linked,and the compound each other to create“urban-rural problems.”As such,rural vitalization is necessary to prevent problems associated with growing cities,and the new model of urbanization is required to prevent problems in rural areas.Based on a review of domestic and foreign research on integrated urban and rural development,this study analyzes the root causes of persistent urban and rural problems and their counterposing patterns on a theoretical level;analyzes the main factors and driving mechanisms as well as the underlying pattern and sustainability of integrated urban and rural development;constructs a measurement test for integrated urban and rural development;and proposes a triangular model of integrated urban and rural development.It confirms that China's integrated urban and rural development is in the late period of urbanization,which features a high degree of integration and more urban areas and fewer rural areas.Subsequently,it will enter the final period of urbanization and a stage of deep integration,with more urban and fewer rural areas.In the future,it will be necessary to implement a strategy of deeply integrated urban and rural development and use new urbanization and rural vitalization to solve urban-rural problems and improve the quality of urban and rural development.New theories and methods of integrated urban and rural development will need to be created and an evaluation system to judge quantitatively the depth of integrated urban and rural development will need to be established,in order to create desirable urban and rural areas.Future efforts should aim to develop greater synchronization,deeper integration,and mutual success between the new model of urbanization and rural vitalization,so as to improve the high-quality development of,and modernize,both urban and rural areas.

CPC Central Committee and State Council Release Opinions Concerning Establishing and Improving the Institution, Mechanism, and Policy System for Urban and Rural Integrated Development

On May 6,2019,the CPC Central Committee and State Council released the Opinions Concerning Establishing and Improving the Institution,Mechanism,and Policy System for Urban and Rural Integrated Development(shortened into the Opinions in the following part).The Opinions suggests that by 2022,a primary urban-rural integrated development mechanism should be established.An institutional channel for free flowing of urban and rural elements should be basically opened up,the restrictions on urban permanent household registration should be gradually eliminated,the unified urban and rural construction land use market should be set up,the capacity of finance serving for countryside revitalization should be apparently promoted.

The Relationship between Government on One Side and the Market and Society on the Other in China’s Agricultural and Rural Development:An Analytical Framework

The integrated development of urban and rural areas requires that the government take responsibility for the overall development of the countryside. Chinese agricultural and rural policies characterized by state intervention and government leadership have played an important role in promoting agricultural development and increasing farmers’ incomes as well as balancing development in urban and rural areas. However, the effectiveness of current agricultural policies in promoting agricultural productivity is now clearly leveling off. Given this situation, the authors argue that it is imperative to construct a new analytical framework featuring government regulation and guidance of agricultural and rural development. In this framework, the government must clearly define the boundaries between its activities and those of the market and rural social organizations. While fully respecting the fundamental role of the market in allocation of resources and rural self-management, the government should exercise its power as a backstop. Further, the government needs to establish a logical sequence for government functions such as formulating the basic operating system of the market and society, correcting market failure and social dysfunction and cultivating market/social entities. To use this new analytical framework to strengthen and improve its regulation and guidance of agricultural and rural development, the government needs to reform the basic rural management and agricultural support and protection systems and to pay attention to the cultivation of market entities in agricultural production on the basis of agricultural marketization. Furthermore, it needs to construct a basic urban-rural integrated public service system with the government as the leading actor, carry out innovations in the management system of rural society and fully mobilize the social forces to take part in the administration of public affairs. It also needs to reconstruct the system of government administration and management to ensure the thorough implementation of agricultural and rural development policies.

Urban livability in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods: The experience of the German program “socially integrative city”

This paper asks how the livability of socially disadvantaged urban neighborhoods can be improved with the help of publicly funded area-based urban regeneration.It builds on the history of area-based regeneration policies in Germany aiming at upgrading and resolving urban problems at the neighborhood level.Its main argument is as follows.First,the fate of conventional physical upgrading policies focusing on the livability of deprived urban areas depends on the development environment.While successful upgrading sometimes makes inner-city neighborhoods so attractive that they run into a trend towards gentrification and displacement of the urban poor,the stabilization of less privileged areas cannot always be guaranteed.Second,alternative approaches are needed,linking limited physical upgrading with socially oriented policies,building on strategies like neighborhood management and empowerment.Third,they can make a substantial contribution to stabilizing deprived neighborhoods,thereby improving the general living conditions and the opportunities of the urban poor.However,they require at least some permanent intervention.Thus,they transcend the logic of area-based regeneration normally limited to restoring faith into the private real estate market and thereby directing inward investment into them that improves the quality of the physical environment.Fourth,they are hardly able to overcome significant negative stigmatization in cities that are severely hit by economic downturn and population decline.This is especially true when they act as arrival areas for consecutive waves of migrants,making it necessary to redefine the role of those areas in cities and accepting their high concentration of urban problems as a starting point for different area-based policies dealing with them.The key empirical background of the paper is the German system of urban development grants and an evaluation of the so-called program of“socially integrative city”.

Influence of Rural Land Institutional Reform on Urbanization During the 13^(th) Five-Year Plan Period:A Case Study of Jiangsu Province

The rural land institutions have confined the process of China's urbanization for a long time. During the 13 th Five-Year Plan period, the Chinese government will push forward a new round of rural land institutional reform, so as to promote the restructuring of current rural land use pattern, change related elements concerning urbanization, and realize the transformation of the urbanization mode. Taking Jiangsu Province, a comprehensive pilot site of new urbanization at the provincial level in China, as an example, the paper summarizes the practical experience of rural land institutional reform in Jiangsu during recent years. Further, through analyzing the influence of rural land institutional reform on the urbanization process of Jiangsu Province during the 13 th Five-Year Plan period, the paper puts forward some policy measures, with the hope of providing a lasting impetus for the new urbanization in Jiangsu Province as well as a reference for other provinces in China.