本文首先分析了乡村地理学及其相邻学科(乡村经济学、乡村社会学)对乡村研究的基本内容,认为三者各有侧重,乡村地理学重点从地域空间的角度分析乡村的各种问题,乡村经济学主要关注乡村经济系统的组织与发展规律,乡村社会学则把重点放在乡村社会变迁上,但共同交叉之处甚多。乡村问题带有地域性、综合性特点,在当今城市化的背景下,乡村地域的功能在发生变化,乡村产业结构、社会结构均经历着由传统向现代的全面转型,当前我国乡村地理学需要重新定向,笔者建议以乡村社会经济变迁的研究为主线,加强经济、社会、地理的综合研究,探讨空间结构模式及其规律性,指导乡村发展的实践。

Rural Geography is a weak branch of Human Geography in China. It is an important task for us to develop rural studies because rural population constitutes the majority. Rural areas occupy the most territory of China. The artical analyses the main research contents of Rural Geography, Rural Society, Rural Economics. The authers think these three branches have paticular emphasis. Rural Geography pays attention to different rural problems from spatial perspective angles. Rural Economics follows the laws of rural economic systems. Rural Society pays much more attention to the changes of rural society. But they have overlapping parts. Rural problems have regional and comprehensive characteristics:the functions of rural areas are changing, industrial and social structure are experiencing overall transformation from tradition to modenization. At present, Rural Geography needs to be reoriented. We should take changes of rural society and economy as the main clue to research and probe into spatial structure pattern and its law.