Property rights and adjustment for sustainable development during post-productivist transitions in China

Xuan Liu, Minghui Kong, De Tong, Xiaoyou Zeng and Yani Lai

Land Use Policy, 2022, vol. 122, issue C

Abstract: Since the 1990 s, the restructuring of the global economic system has ushered in worldwide ‘post-productivist transitions’ (PPTs) and triggered development in rural areas and agricultural adjustments for meeting the requirements of urban populations to consume ‘rurality’. While adaptive development of rural areas has occurred in Western countries, it is hardly possible in China, where strict land conversion controls over rural land exist. In China, an increasing need for construction in rural areas results in the overexploitation of existing built-up land. Taking the fragmented rights of homestead land and collectively operated built-up land into consideration, the deterioration of natural and built environments becomes inevitable and damages the sustainability of PPTs. By investigating two PPT cases in China, this study argues that land conversion controls over collective-owned rural land have stimulated denser, at times illegal, development in villages. The study also contends that fragmented use rights hamper environment-friendly development, possibly ending PPTs, as happened in Xiaozhou Village in Guangzhou. Given the practices in Wanfu Village in Chengdu, policies that end land conversion controls and encourage assembly could partially solve the problem by allowing sustainable rural land development. Preparing space for urban populations in a sustainable way helps avoid the illegal redevelopment of villages and protects the area’s rurality, allowing PPTs to evolve. This study advocates for institutional adjustment when designing a path for developing PPTs.

Keywords: Post-productivist transitions; Land conversion control; Property rights; Sustainable development; Rural China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:122:y:2022:i:c:s0264837722004069

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106379

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