Redai dili (Jul 2024)

The Measurement of Translocal Household Livelihood Resilience in Rural and Urban Areas and Its Influencing Factors

  • Su Fei,
  • Liu Youjia,
  • Tong Lei,
  • Zheng Ke

DOI
https://doi.org/10.13284/j.cnki.rddl.20230401
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 44, no. 7
pp. 1279 – 1288

Abstract

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Against the background of the new phase of urban-rural integration and development in China, the importance of the translocal mindset has been increasingly highlighted. It has also been found that factors such as urban-rural factor flow, structural adjustment, and functional transformation have a series of effects on household livelihood resilience. Therefore, identifying rural-urban translocal household livelihood resilience characteristics and exploring the rural-urban population impact influx on rural household livelihood resilience are important guidelines for the formulation and implementation of policies related to new urbanization, regional agriculture, and rural areas. This study conducted in-depth field research in six villages spanning four counties and districts in Lishui City to identify the key characteristics of translocal households. It constructed an indicator system encompassing buffering capacity, self-organization, and learning ability, employed advanced mathematical methods such as the entropy method, comprehensive index method, and structural equation modeling to quantitatively measure the livelihood resilience of translocal families, and analyzed the characteristics of different types of translocal households' livelihood resilience in different regions and the influencing factors of translocal households' livelihood resilience in the context of population mobility. In addition, this study examined the most recent and pre-eminent scholarly works, profoundly incorporating their insights. This approach not only enhances the theoretical lens for examining the resilience of urban-rural cross-regional household livelihoods, but also provides a rigorous scientific basis for policy formulation. These authoritative references, characterized by their theoretical sophistication and empirical robustness, serve as a crucial source of inspiration and validation for this research, thereby assuming paramount significance in guiding the advancement of new urbanization and urban-rural integration. Based on the aforementioned study background, research methodology, and cited authoritative literature, this study drew the following conclusions: 1) Urban cross-locality significantly enhances the resilience level of rural families with poor transportation conditions and average economic development. However, for rural areas with better overall development, the impact of such rural-urban population migration is limited. The overall level of livelihood resilience of rural-urban cross-regional families in Lishui is moderate, with a mean score of 0.304, which is significantly higher than the mean value of 0.245 for non-cross-regional rural families. This difference is mainly reflected in the learning abilities of the family members. 2) The key to rural-urban cross-locality migration lies in the information flow transmitted by family members after migration. This greatly enhances the knowledge and information environment of the family, further increasing their livelihood resilience by optimizing their learning ability. The improvement in the information environment obtained through population migration has a greater impact on the family livelihood resilience level than capital flow, whereas material flow has no significant impact. 3) In addition to information flow, factors such as "proportion of migrant workers," "education level of migrant workers," "occupational stability of migrant workers," "number of vocational training times for migrant workers," and "income proportion of migrant workers" are also key factors affecting the livelihood resilience of cross-locality families. 4) The impact of population flow characteristics on resilience is the most significant, followed by information flow characteristics; furthermore, capital flow's impact is relatively low. However, there is no significant correlation between material flow characteristics and level of resilience of cross-regional family livelihoods. Besides strengthening their own capabilities, migrant workers conveying ideas and information about new technologies in the city to rural families is also an important factor improving the level of resilience in family livelihoods.

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