PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2018, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (8): 1022-1030.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2018.08.002

• Special Column: Young Geographer Forum • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Sustainable livelihoods of semi-urbanized farmers and sustainable rural development: Theoretical framework, research progress and future prospect

Qing TANG1,2(), Yang LI3,4,*(), Mingxing CHEN1,4, Yong XU1,4   

  1. 1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    2. Bureau of Frontier Sciences and Education, CAS, Beijing 100864, China
    3. National Science Library, China Center for Modernization Research, CAS, Beijing 100190, China
    4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2018-05-10 Revised:2018-07-16 Online:2018-09-04 Published:2018-09-04
  • Contact: Yang LI E-mail:tangq@igsnrr.ac.cn;liy2014@mail.las.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41601121, No.41301121, No.41430636;Programme of Bingwei Excellent Young Scientists of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, No.2015RC202

Abstract:

The framework of sustainable livelihoods analysis (SLA) can be used for semi-urbanized farmers working in cities in order to promote urbanization in China and is suitable for research at household scale in China's western regions for improving sustainable rural development. This article first summarizes the concept and analytic framework of sustainable livelihoods, and from the comprehensive perspective of geography, develops a theoretical and analytic framework that is applicable to China's empirical study, based on the sustainable livelihoods of semi-urbanized farmers and sustainable rural development. Second, based on the program "Assessment of livelihoods status of semi-urbanized farmers, and obstructive factors and policy intervention of the transformation to urban residents" supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the international and Chinese research on sustainable livelihoods, and the empirical research progress on the transformation from semi-urbanized farmers to urban residents and sustainable rural development in China, are introduced. Finally, this article presents the key themes of future research including integrated study of the transformation from semi-urbanized farmers to urban residents and sustainable rural development; comprehensive research of willingness and obstructive factors of transforming semi-urbanized farmers to urban residents; interactions of semi-urbanized farmers and rural development and the effect of transformation to urban residents; and integrated research of sustainable livelihoods and sustainable rural development.

Key words: semi-urbanized farmers, sustainable livelihoods, transformation to urban residents, sustainable rural development, ecological environment