The Relationship Network within Spatial Situation: Embeddedness and Spatial Constraints of Farmers’ Behaviors

Abstract

It has been persuasively argued that relationship networks affect the socio-economic behaviors of actors. However, few studies have recognized the location and context of actors in relationship network. To address this challenge, this paper examined the skill learning and chain migration which were affected by relationship network within spatial situation, by using data covering 115 households in the specialized village of fried dough sticks (youtiao). The results showed learning from neighbors with geographical closeness played an important role in expanding the space and enhancing efficiency of skill learning. It could be noted that the establishment of master-prentice relationship networks was related to the spatial proximity of farmers’ dwellings, and constrained by the space of villagers’ group. Farmers’ chain migration showed the closer the spatial distance of farmers, the nearer the migration destination they choose. Farmers’ livelihoods were constrained by the differences of spatial contexts. Farmers with smaller amounts of cultivated land were more likely to flow into cities with long distance for selling fried dough sticks, and they usually became fixed merchants. In contrast, farmers with more cultivated land were more likely to migrate to the countryside with short distance and usually became mobile vendors. It should better understand the socio-economic behaviors and the change of regional livelihoods, if we will focus on relationship networks embedded in spatial situation in future research.

Keywords

• relationship network
• spatial situation
• socio-economic behaviors
• skill learning
• chain migration
• spatial context