On May 8th, a lecture titled “Countryside and Land: Alternative Sociological Reflections on Rural Revitalization” was delivered at HZAU by Feng Shizheng, the dean and professor of the School of Sociology and Population Studies from Renmin University of China, and a Changjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor appointed by the Ministry of Education. This is the 18th session of the “Opening Lecture”, organized by College Humanities &Social Sciences, with the dean of the School of Literature and Law, Tian Beihai, serving as the chairperson.
Feng delivers the speech. (Photo/Huang Yujie)
Starting from the concept transformation from rural China to rural revitalization, Professor Feng Shizheng introduced the history and reality of the issues of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. According to him, with the development of society, the traditional settlement pattern in China, where production and life were integrated within a community, has gradually disintegrated, resulting in the separation of production and life, and the trend of industrialization, professionalization and commercialization. Under this background, the relationship between agriculture, rural areas, and farmers has evolved from the interdependent relationship among agriculture, rural areas, and farmers into a more complex and diversified one. In the new era, the concept of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers has been given new and significant meaning.
He introduced four important theories on peasant economy: Theodore Schultz argued that peasants were rational and optimizing; Alexander Chayanov held the view that peasants would work as hard as they needed to meet their subsistence needs, but had no incentive beyond; Karl Marx proposed that peasants were an economic class that shares the relationship of serfdom; Barrington Moore Jr. believed that farmers would eventually become sacrifices of modernization. Professor Feng stated that the three rural issues boiled down to the problem of the countryside and land. The aforementioned theoretical foundations could help us comprehend the history and future of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.
Feng suggested that to conduct research on rural revitalization, one needs to have a broad vision, breaking from nostalgic or sentimental feelings towards the countryside and approaching the problem from a sociological perspective, considering industry and class relations to better formulate policies. He encouraged students to break through the pastoral imagination of rural areas, carefully study the logic of China’s modernization in order to gain a deeper understanding of rural revitalization.
In the QA session, Professor Feng Shizheng addressed inquiries from students about the practical paths to achieve rural revitalization and engaged in lively discussions with the attendees.
Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2023/0510/66472.shtml
Translated by: Yao Li
Supervised by: Jin Bei
