Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2015

Farmers Moving Upstairs and Capital Going Down to the Countryside: A Sociological Study of Urbanization

(Abstract)

Zhou Feizhou and Wang Shaochen

In the course of urbanization driven by the model of “comprehensive planning for rural and urban areas,” Chengdu City has encouraged government-led resettlement of farmers in concentrated communities (“farmers moving upstairs”) and transferred capital to large-scale agricultural operations (“capital going down to the countryside”). This has not only transformed the face of “agriculture, the countryside and farmers,” but also boosted the integration of urban and rural areas. If we view this model within the framework of three pairs of interrelationships—that between the central and local governments, between the state and farmers, and between government and enterprises—and relate it to the historical process of rapid urbanization that China is currently undergoing, we can see the benefits and drawbacks and the gains and losses for government, capital and farmers in the course of this process, as well as the problems with the present “land management” urbanization model and the historical necessity of turning to “people-oriented” urbanization.