CREATING CHINA’S NEW URBAN RURAL RELATIONSHIP: E-COMMERCE SERVICE IN RURAL TRANSFORMATION

Abstract

New medias, especially e-commerce, may have the capacity to create a new urban-rural relationship. Therefore, this thesis attempts to answer: 1. What is rural e-commerce in China? 2. What is the urban-rural spatial relationship under the influence of rural e-commerce in China？Case studies of Suichang rural e-commerce model and Alibaba rural strategy help us understand a new urban-rural relationship. This new relationship is shaped by the emergence of e-commerce, triggering spatial regeneration of local areas and regional restructuring in China. These case studies are analysed on the basis of field-studies and first-hand observations in rural Chinese villages adopting e-commerce. The scope of this research concerns the contemporary Chinese context, and especially the rural areas, as it is based on experiences in rural China from 2014 to 2017.