Land Use Transitions and Rural Restructuring in China

Intended as a comprehensive guide to the study of land use and rural development, this book offers detailed descriptions of land use transitions and rural restructuring. To do so, it chiefly focuses on three main aspects, the first of which is the application of geographical perspectives in order to understand rural issues in connection with urbanization, industrialization, globalization and rural vitalization strategies in contemporary China. Secondly, it presents a rich blend of regional and national analyses; detailed explorations of local cases; and critical and theoretically informed discussions that address historical paths and future projections. Lastly, it adapts concepts derived from western literature to situations and experiences in rural China, and provides empirical evidence from an “insider” perspective. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, and for graduate students / courses in geography and sociology. 

Hualou Long is Professor and Ph.D. supervisor of human geography at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Director of the Department of Agricultural Geography and Rural Development at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Deputy Director of the Center for Assessment and Research on Targeted Poverty Alleviation, CAS.

He is also the Director of the Specialty Committee of Agricultural Geography and Rural Development in the Geographical Society of China, the Director of the Working Committee on Youth in China Land Science Society, and the Deputy Director and concurrent Secretary-General of the Specialty Committee of Land Resources Research in China Society of Natural Resources. He obtained his Ph.D. in physical geography from Peking University and carried out a postdoctoral research at IGSNRR, CAS. Thereafter, he had five-year working experience at Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Center, the Ministry of Natural Resources of China. He worked as Research Scholar at the section of Sustainable Rural Development, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in 2005, and visited the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University in 2009.

His research interests include China’s rural restructuring, urban–rural development, land use transition, and sustainable land use. He has published eight books including one translation on land use and urban–rural development and over 270 original research papers. He was awarded Highly Cited Researcher in the field of Social Sciences in 2019. He has guided 10 Ph.D. students as supervisor and 6 as a co-supervisor in the area of human geography.

Currently, he is serving as Associate Editor of Habitat International, and Member of Editorial Board of Journal of Rural Studies and Land Use Policy.