How Does Urban-Rural Capital Flow Affect Rural Reconstruction near Metropolitan Areas? Evidence from Shanghai, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Hi Authors.

Congratulations on this nice article, and I was impressed by how fast the government, companies, and people worked on remodeling the village since it was a poor and undeveloped area in 2018. It is very beneficial to other villages in China and to other countries across the globe. My main concern is about the analytical framework. It is too short. If we consider others can use it, more details, more context, and more foundation can be very important. I understand it is a single use-case, but a stronger framework can help you to stimulate similar actions in other villages and countries.

See below my comments:

From 44 to 50; Does the reference [7] represents the entire paragraph? Again, strong statements deserve specific references.

From 72 to 77: Is there a reference to support this statement?

From 77 to 78: This sentence also deserves a firm reference. How are you assuming this "elite capture"? Again, a reference here can help you to make this affirmation stronger.

From 107 to 108: Very important statament. It deserves a reference to make the statement stronger.

From 116 to 135: Very long paragraph and easy to get confused. Are all ideas here from the authors, or are there references to strengthen the paragraph?

The same from 136 to 143. References appear again in line 144.

The analytical framework has three paragraphs. I am afraid that it is a weak and light framework without a strong foundation.

Studies have been conducted in August 2022 and July 2021. Is there an impact because of the pandemic to be considered?

It seems there is a typo in line 414 "middle-"

Regards!

Author Response

Point 1: About references

Thanks for your carefully review. We have revised the relevant issues of the references one by one.

①From 44 to 50; Does the reference [7] represents the entire paragraph? Again, strong statements deserve specific references.

We have revised the expression of this paragraph so that it can be supported by references.

②From 72 to 77: Is there a reference to support this statement?

We added relevant policies to support this statement.

③From 77 to 78: This sentence also deserves a firm reference. How are you assuming this "elite capture"? Again, a reference here can help you to make this affirmation stronger. From 107 to 108: Very important statament. It deserves a reference to make the statement stronger.

We have added corresponding references to support these sentences.

④From 116 to 135: Very long paragraph and easy to get confused. Are all ideas here from the authors, or are there references to strengthen the paragraph? The same from 136 to 143. References appear again in line 144.

We have made major changes to the theoretical analysis and supplemented the references.

 

Point 2: The analytical framework has three paragraphs. I am afraid that it is a weak and light framework without a strong foundation.

We agreed with your suggestions. The theoretical framework we provided earlier is really too simplified. In the revised version, we revised the theoretical analysis, hoping to be more convincing. At the same time, we also draw a new theoretical framework.

 

Point 3: Studies have been conducted in August 2022 and July 2021. Is there an impact because of the pandemic to be considered?

Thank you very much for your suggestion. There are two main reasons for not discussing the impact of the epidemic in this article: First, between 2020 and 2022, China has adopted different epidemic prevention and control strategies from most countries in the world. In order to make the research conclusions of this article have universal explanatory power, we have not considered the epidemic factors; Second, according to our observation of the actual situation in China, the epidemic has had a relatively large impact on tourism, catering and other consumer industries. The industrial structure of Wufang Village is relatively perfect, and rural tourism only accounts for a small part. During the interview, the interviewees hardly mentioned the impact of the epidemic on them. As you suggested, the COVID-19 pandemic has indeed had a profound impact worldwide. Although we did not pay attention to the epidemic in this article, we will investigate its impact on rural development in subsequent studies.

 

Point 4: It seems there is a typo in line 414 "middle-"

Thank you for this comment. We checked the word again and it seems to be correct. The explanation of "middle-class" in the dictionary is the social class whose members are neither very rich nor very poor and that includes professional and business people. It is exactly what we want to express.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Topic of research is actual. Literature review is relevant.

The research methodology can be described in more detail, especially analytical framework.

It is not clear, how inductive data analysis and systematically classified the material was done.

Figures 6,7 and 8 are not necessary for the presentation of research results.

 

Author Response

Point 1: The research methodology can be described in more detail, especially analytical framework.

Thank you for this helpful comment. We revised the theoretical analysis and research methods. According to your suggestion, we have described the process of theoretical construction in more detail and drawn a new theoretical framework.

 

Point 2: It is not clear, how inductive data analysis and systematically classified the material was done.

Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have supplemented the introduction of the data analysis process in the revised version.The details are as follows:

Specifically, we read all the data collected in detail, and then classified the original materials according to the three aspects of rural operation (capital investment, land-use optimization and industrial development). After classification, we extracted seven secondary subjects from the original materials using the coding method, which can help us to interpret the case in an orderly way.

 

Point 3: Figures 6,7 and 8 are not necessary for the presentation of research results.

Thank you for this comment. We originally hoped to use these pictures to visually present the changes of Wufang Village in landscape, industry and lifestyle after the rural operation. But as you say, they are not necessary to present research results. Therefore, we have deleted Figure 6, 7 and 8 in the revised paper.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This is an interesting and meaningful study. In the way of typical cases, the author analyzes the influence of the flow of city-country capital on the reconstruction of a certain countryside. In general, although it is a typical case study, the research topic has certain significance and the research design is relatively exquisite. It is suggested to be revised and published. Some suggestions are for reference:

(1) What the key scientific questions the research is addressing need to be further clarified. At the same time, compared with the existing research, the marginal contribution of this research needs to be further clarified.

(2) The typical and representative information of case selection needs to be further detailed, especially after the township is determined, the selection of typical case village needs more detailed information.

         (3) The ultimate goal of the case study is to be able to use the dots as a template for other similar areas. Therefore, it is suggested that the author make a more in-depth discussion on this topic in the discussion section.

         (4) Figure 2 is incomplete and lacks basic map elements such as compass and legend.

Author Response

Point 1: What the key scientific questions the research is addressing need to be further clarified. At the same time, compared with the existing research, the marginal contribution of this research needs to be further clarified.

Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have revised the last paragraph of the introduction, added a description of the significance of this study, and further clarified the key scientific issues questions. The details are as follows:

This paper hopes to answer three key questions: 1) Why does urban industrial and commercial capital flow to the countryside? 2)How should the capital flowing to rural areas be utilized? 3) What is the impact of the capital flow on rural reconstruction?

 

Point 2: The typical and representative information of case selection needs to be further detailed, especially after the township is determined, the selection of typical case village needs more detailed information.

Thank you for your comments. We reintroduced the reasons for case selection. The typicality of Wufang Village is mainly reflected in three aspects. First, as a village in the suburbs of Shanghai, its development experience is worth learning and promoting; Second, the village has various types of capital participation in the development process, which can well serve our research theme; Third, from the perspective of development results, Wufang Village has been well reconstructed and is a successful case of rural revitalization. The details are as follows:

(a) Shanghai is one of the most rapidly developing and representative international metropolises in China. From the perspective of economic level and degree of marketization, the study of rural areas in Shanghai can not only be a good dialogue with relevant western research results, but also provide development experience for rural transformation in other major urban areas in China and countries in Asia or Africa. (b) Wufang Village is one of the first rural revitalization demonstration villages in Shanghai. We believe that the policy pilot area has important sample value. Therefore, we conducted a long-term follow-up survey of the village and found that urban industrial and commercial capital played an important role in the revitalization of Wufang Village. Specifically, the reconstruction of Wufang Village was led by a company owned by Qingcun Town, other state-owned enterprises, and some private enterprises in Shanghai. The diverse capital types help us understand how urban-rural capital flow affects rural reconstruction. (c) Wufang Village is a model of spatial, economic, and social rural reconstruction. Before 2018, Wufang Village was a poor village with extensive yellow peach cultivation, and farmland degradation was significant. Many young people had moved to the urban area of Shanghai. Thus, the majority of the people in the village were older and younger people, and the house vacancy rate was 60%. Since then, Wufang Village has been transformed into a complex business area due to village reconstruction, broadening the income channels of villagers, improving the rural area, and attracting talents to return to their hometown. The interpretation of Wufang Village's case can help us study the impact of rural operation on rural reconstruction.

 

Point 3: The ultimate goal of the case study is to be able to use the dots as a template for other similar areas. Therefore, it is suggested that the author make a more in-depth discussion on this topic in the discussion section.

Thank you very much for your suggestion. In the discussion part, we added a summary of the highlights of the case and explained why Wufang Village's practice is worth promoting through dialogue with other research results. The details are as follows:

We believe that the administrative power to control part of the rural operation power is a highlight of this case, because it is conducive to the development of the rural areas in the direction that most people expect, rather than a small number of enterprises. Specifically, in the practice of Wufang Village, the local government has defined the spatial pattern and utilization of land through planning, which is a limited means to guide and restrict urban industrial and commercial capital, and prohibits them from "predatory" development of rural land from the source. At the same time, the town company (Oriental Wonderland Group) owns the leading power of Wufang Village operation. This company actually represents the will of the town government of Qingcun, which can effectively prevent the town collective from being in a weak position in the market competition. This measure is worth learning from rural areas in China and many developing countries in the world, because the marketization level of these villages is low after all. If urban capital is allowed to act in rural areas without restriction, it is likely to cause damage to rural interests.

Another key measure of urban industrial and commercial capital is to establish a complete industrial system in Wufang Village, and let local villagers share the fruits of economic development. We can observe such a phenomenon from the practice of China and many countries in the world, that is, tourism and real estate development seem to be the mainstream way for enterprises to carry out rural development. However, large-scale development of rural tourism may destroy the rural landscape and traditional culture, and there is also a risk of homogenization competition. Land use in rural China is strictly managed by the state. Although some scholars call for further institutional innovation in terms of the reform of the rural land system, large-scale real estate development activities are still not allowed at this stage. The choice of Wufang Village is to develop the yellow peach industry and headquarters economy at the same time. Rural tourism is only one link in the yellow peach industrial chain. Its industrial development path can be followed by those villages without tourism resources. Diversified industries can make the rural economic structure more stable. At the same time, the operating enterprises in Wufang Village employ local villagers, pay dividends to villagers and provide elderly care services for the local elderly. These are all wise measures, because they can help enterprises gain the trust and support of local villagers. The conflict between the local population and the newcomers is universal. When the aborigines think their own interests are damaged, they will prevent the actions of outsiders, which is unfavorable to rural operation.

 

Point 4: Figure 2 is incomplete and lacks basic map elements such as compass and legend.

We apologize for this mistake and thank you very much for pointing out it. We have replaced Figure 2 in the revised paper.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx