@article{307dbf8ba87b4e3ba281786d7c09e938,
title = "Land consolidation in rural China: Life satisfaction among resettlers and its determinants",
abstract = "The Chinese government has pursued rural land consolidation under the Building New Rural Communities (BNRC) initiative. The consolidation projects aim to address the hollowing village problem, improve the living standards of rural dwellers, and promote urban-rural integration. Rural villages with small populations and poor infrastructure are merged into a centralized rural community, and their inhabitants are resettled. The newly vacated buildings are then converted to agriculture land, which allows cities to expand under the {"}no net loss{"} land-use policy. Despite the significance of the initiative, both in terms of the scale of operation and the impacts on the affected households, there are few empirical studies that scrutinize this form of rural restructuring. Drawing on data collected via surveys and interviews, this paper examines the processes of land consolidation and its impacts on villagers. From a development-as-modernization perspective, we outline three main processes of land consolidation: village mergers and resettlement, land circulation to rural cooperatives, and rural industrial development. Overall, the effects of land consolidation on the livelihood of resettled villagers are positive. This system generally improves housing and living conditions through increased levels of off-farm employment and income, but there are a number of barriers that may hinder a villager's ability to find different employment. Housing and neighborhood characteristics have significant effects on the life satisfaction of villagers.",
keywords = "China, Land consolidation, Life satisfaction, Resettlement, Rural restructuring",
author = "Weiming Tong and Lo, {Tek Sheng Kevin} and Pingyu Zhang",
note = "Funding Information: This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 41901202, 41571152, 41771179, 41601124; The Educational Planning Projects of Zhejiang Province, grant number 2020SCG227; 135 Planning and Featured Services Projects of IGA, Chinese Academy of Sciences, grant number Y6H2091001, IGA-135-04; The Key Deployment Projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, grant number ZDBS-SSW-SQC; National Social Major Science Foundation of China, grant number 18ZDA045 and China Scholarship Council, grant number 201404910592. We are grateful to Chenchen Tian, Ran Gao, and the students from Northeast Institution of Geography and Agroecology. They provided us with generous help in data collection. We are grateful to four anonymous reviewers' comments and suggestions. Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 41901202, 41571152, 41771179, 41601124; The Educational Planning Projects of Zhejiang Province, grant number 2020SCG227; 135 Planning and Featured Services Projects of IGA, Chinese Academy of Sciences, grant number Y6H2091001, IGA-135-04; The Key Deployment Projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, grant number ZDBS-SSW-SQC; National Social Major Science Foundation of China, grant number 18ZDA045 and China Scholarship Council, grant number 201404910592.",
year = "2020",
month = apr,
day = "1",
doi = "10.3390/land9040118",
language = "English",
volume = "9",
journal = "Land",
issn = "2073-445X",
publisher = "MDPI",
number = "4",
}
