The Half-industrial and Half-agricultural Working Structure in Rural China

Abstract

The half-industrial and half-agricultural working structure in rural China is a key phenomenon supporting China’s industrialization and urbanization. Based on inter-generational division of labor, the current half-industrial and half-agricultural working structure has given birth to the elderly agriculture and mainstay agriculture, the latter of which has gone out of agricultural involution and to some extent changed the management philosophy of traditional agriculture, becoming a key direction of China’s agricultural development. Such a structure has also shaped the "new three-generation family" and facilitated the expansion of middle-income rural groups. While supporting long-term farmers in rural China, it also paves the way for China’s urbanization. This structure plays a significant role in the economic, political and social development of rural China. Therefore, this structure is a rural economic structure which concerns farmers’ income structure and livelihood patterns. Meanwhile, it is also a rural political structure, village structure and family structure. Through development and refinement, the half-industrial and halfagricultural working structure in rural China has far extended the scope of a descriptive concept. As a dominant variable, the structure, along with its derivatives, through permutation and combination, can establish logical relationships and an interpretation chain among a variety of major economic, political and social phenomena in rural China. Therefore, it can expect to be constructed into an analyticity-oriented mid-level concept.

Keywords

• rural structure
• half-industrial and half-agricultural
• inter-generational division of labor
• new three-generation family
• middle-income group