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| THE FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF THE RURAL SOCIAL SPACE IN CHINA |
| AI Da-bin, MA Xiao-ling |
| Department of Geography, Nei Jiang Teacher's College, Neijiang 641112, China |
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Abstract The rural social space mirrors a spatial structure of differentiation and composition of the rural social life under certain social-economic conditions,but in essence,it derives from social differentiation of the rural people. China countryside has its long history, and remarkable changes have taken place since reform and opening. So it would be practically significant to study Chinese rural social space at present.
First of all, this article puts forward that the whole evolving process in chinese countryside includes four stages:①The period of natural economy with natural village community becomes elementary component unit of rural social space;②The period of the initial development of commodity economy with primary level town community becomes elementary component unit;③The period of agriculture collectivization with rural social spatial structure embodies an administrative community system;④The period of the speedy development of commodity economy and market economy with rural areas emerge stratum communities based on the career differentiation of the rural people.
Secondly, the article reveals the forming mechanism and evolving law of the rural social space. With the development of social productive forces in rural areas, the structural characteristic of rural social space continuously evolves also. Moreover, this evolution possesses universal law, that is:①The dominant forming factors of rural social space gradually change from primary social relations such as blood relationship and region relationship to secondary social relations such as career relationship; ②As a elementary forming unit of rural social space, the rural basic-level community gradually develops from traditional community that is closed and narrowed to modern community that is open and more broad; ③The whole structural characteristic of the rural social space goes through a regulation process in space, it embodies from similarity to dissimilarity and then to similarity at a higher degree.
At last,the author forecasts several developing tendencies of chinese rural social space in future. For example, with a speedy development of urbanization in rural area, the traditional village communities will gradually be replaced by new rural town communities; some rural towns with enormous potentialities will turn into real city communities and so on.
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Received: 17 March 2003
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2004, Vol. 19 
