The Consumption Transition And Social Space Reconstruction Of Relational Rural Based On Actor-Network Theory

Influenced by the global consumption culture,rural China is now undergoing the transition from productivism to post-productivism.The multi-functional character of rural areas is becoming increasingly apparent.As with the implementation of urban-rural integrated development and construction the Beautiful Village strategies,rural reconstruction movements led by the governments or artists could be found all over China.The frequent and free mobility of various factors-people,capital,information,technology,idea etc-between urban and rural areas makes rural areas no longer somewhere far away from the urban areas.Instead of being a peaceful land,the rural area is reconstructed by heterogeneous actors according to their own benefit goals.The research focuses on the consumption transition and the social space reconstruction of rural areas based on Actor-Network Theory and the relational approach.It takes Dashiao Beautiful Village in Jiangning District,Nanjing and Bishan village in Yi County,Anhui Province as two cases.Employing questionnaire,interview and interventional observation,this research illustrates the construction of actor networks and their transition from two aspects,namely the mobility and fixity.It shows the translation of heterogeneous actors in the reconstruction of Dashiao Beautiful Village led by the government and Bishan village led by the artists and their different mechanisms,the mobility of various factors between rural and urban or even between local and global and the reconstruction of physical spaces in certain villages.It demonstrates the relational character of rural areas with its consumption transition.In the case of Dashiao Beautiful Village,the government consolidated the fixity of the village through improving the quality of the environment,landscape and the physical spaces in the first place.Then it accelerated the development of rural economy by the mobility of various factors between Dashiao and the urban areas of Nanjing.While in the case of Bishan village,the cultural resources in rural areas were firstly consolidated and spread around the world through which heterogeneous actors from different fields were attracted into the actor network.They took part in the reconstruction of rural space in Bishan village and the special rural value of Bishan village was protected and exhibited.In the first case,the social space reconstruction of the village was largely dominated by the goverument.The alliance of the goverument and the new-come operators became the key actors of the development of rural economy while local villagers were marginalized in this process.In the second case,taking advantages of the artists’ social network relations,the mobility of the cultural resources enabled it to attract heterogeneous actors who一together with long-term residents-Played important roles in the reconstruction of the village.In this process,the artists became balanceable power between local villagers,the governments and the developers.However,because of the critical attitude of artists to the government,the influx of massive capital and its joint with local government,it is the local government and developers instead of artists who will determine the development trend of Bishan village.The research analyzes the mechanisms of the reconstruction of the relational rural in three aspects:the symmetry,heterogeneity and dynamism of the network.Firstly,ANT is famous for its General Symmetry Principle,which treats human actors and non-human actants equally.In the reconstruction of rural China,the government plays the key actor.Its alliance with different interest groups determines the development trend of different villages.Secondly,economic development and culture protection remains two main interest goals in the actor network of these two villages.Local government pays more attention to rural economy while ignores the value of traditional rural culture.Artists,taking advantages of their artistic practices,infuse cultural elements into the development of rural economy.Due to artists5 critical attitude to the government and developers,their artistic practices have been largely limited in Bishan village.Villagers showed quite different attitudes towards the reconstruction of the village because of their diflferent interest goals and also because of the unequal distribution of benefits.Finally,in the era of mobility,the villages are no longer stable,static,and closed space far away from the city center.Rather,they become relational spaces through interacting with the urban areas and even global spaces through the mobility of various factors.They also keep their fixity through the reconstruction of physical spaces.Mobility makes the rural more vibrant while fixity keeps their specificity.The thesis is organized as follows:Chapter Ⅰ is background.The paper explains the origins and foundation of this research,including both social background and theoretical background.The literature review focuses on three aspects:the consumption transition and the social space reconstruction of rural spaces,Actor-network Theory and its application in geography,the mobility era and relational rural.Chapter Ⅱ is the research issue and objects.Research questions,framework,research methods are put forwarded in this section.It also shows a brief description of the research cases.Chapter Ⅲ demonstrates the social space reconstruction of Dashiao village from two periods:the construction of beautiful village and its transition to consunption space,the mobility of various factors between Dashiao and the urban areas.Chapter Ⅳ demonstrates the social space reconstruction of Bishan village from two periods:the consolidation of Bishan cultural resources and its spread around the world,the construction of its internal spaces.Chapter Ⅴ analyzes the mechanisms of the reconstruction of the relational rural in three aspects:the symmetry,heterogeneity and dynamism of the network.Chapter Ⅵ is conclusions and discussions.It mainly summarizes the research conclusions and the innovation points and proposes the research prospects in the future.