Xin, Shengxi; (2024) Neo-exogenous Development: Conceptualising Rural Revitalisation in China. A Study on Modern Agricultural Zones. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Since the launch of its “New Socialist Countryside Construction” (NSCC) programme in 2005, China has experienced significant rural restructuring, marked by both new urban-rural connectivity and a diversification of rural socio-economic and spatial structures. Thereafter, and under the Xi administration, the “National Rural Revitalisation Strategy” was launched. It can be considered to be both a successor to the NSCC and to represent renewed effort to integrate pluralising rural society into the party-state apparatus through state programmes that increasingly involve local and external social stakeholders in the implementation stage. This national integration process of rural society, also known as rural integration, is in line with China's rural governance and development tradition which both date back to Imperial China. Viewed in this manner, the NRRS can be seen as part of a broader state-building objective. This recent governance transition has led to the emergence of a hybrid rural development approach which is referred to, in this thesis, as “neo-exogenous development” (NED). Unlike community-oriented (neo-)endogenous development approaches, NED is characterised by a party-state-led collaborative innovation process in which the ‘active party-state’ — comprised of both central- and local- state bureaucrats and semi-formal rural party agents — act as the primary development actors rather than civil society groups. In addition to physical improvement, the NED aims to guide rural communities towards becoming “activated communities” that understand how to communicate and cooperate with the “active party-state”, as a result of rural integration. This thesis has two main goals: first, it provides deeper understanding of rural development theory and practice in China, by shifting to a conception of rural development that is rooted in the longer Chinese experience of state-building and unique party-state regime rather than in Western (and mainly European) analyses. Secondly, it unpacks the operational mechanisms and policy effectiveness of NED, which are represented in the thesis by the Modern Agricultural Zone (MAZ). For the purpose of evaluation, effectiveness centres on the propensity of a development model to generate and retain local value; a major challenge for global rural development practice.

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