Page 1 of 11
Archives of Business Research – Vol. 9, No. 12
Publication Date: December 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/abr.912.11324. Feng, H., & Squires, V. R. (2021). Urbanization in China and the Role of Social And Natural Capital in Land Acquisition and Transfer
Arrangements. Archives of Business Research, 9(12). 104-114.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Urbanization in China and the Role of Social And Natural Capital
in Land Acquisition and Transfer Arrangements
Haying Feng
ORCID 0000-0003-0594-1187
Qinzhou Development Institute, BeiBu Gulf University, Guangxi, China
Victor R. Squires
ORCID 0000-0002-6684-2927
Formerly, University of Adelaide
ABSTRACT
The paper is in several parts. We explain the context of the study area that is
characterized by land acquisition and transfer (LAT) by local government (often
against the wishes of the local villagers). We report on a methodology that is simple,
yet robust, that enables local land users and other interested parties to quantify the
social capital of local people in rural and peri-urban areas of Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region (GZAR) and assess the extent to which social capital influences
the bargaining power of land users when faced with acquisition of their cropland,
grazing land, woodlands, water and other environmental goods and services.
Finally, we explore the notion that social capital can be a force to create a more even
playing field and influence the outcomes of land grab for industrial, infrastructure
and urban development. Interest in the concept of social capital and its application
has increased rapidly over the past few years with the realization that social bonds
and norms are important for achieving sustainability. Ferdinand Tönnies identified
the value of the ideas surrounding social capital as early as 1887, but later scholars
gave it a theoretical framework. Social capital implies that there are aspects of
social structure and organization that act as resources for individuals, allowing
them to realize their personal aims and interests. Often, social capital is defined as
trust, norms of reciprocity, and networks among individuals that can be drawn
upon for individual or collective benefit. Social capital is different between
urbanites and rural dwellers, especially farmers. In this paper, we focus on how
social capital serves the interests of individuals or collectives. Social capital based
on kinship and geopolitical position plays an important role in affecting rural land
transfer. Rural land transfer (also called LAT) is becoming a highly contested matter
as China moves to implement its plan to increase the proportion of urban dwellers
to 70% by 2030(Ma et al., 2018). Natural capital (a sub-set of social capital) should
always be maintained as it is critical to sustainable economic development
representing, as it does, a multidimensional concept that mirrors the different
frameworks of various scientific disciplines and social groups used in valuing
nature. Widespread and rampant LAT that accompanies accelerated economic
development in peri-urban and rural areas (Ma et al., 2018) needs to take critical
natural capital into account.
Key words: urban growth, land grab, rural land, economic development, labor, migration
Page 2 of 11
105
Feng, H., & Squires, V. R. (2021). Urbanization in China and the Role of Social And Natural Capital in Land Acquisition and Transfer Arrangements.
Archives of Business Research, 9(12). 104-114.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.912.11324
CONTEXT AND SETTING
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR) is in the south of China and is bordered by the
South China Sea (Gulf of Tonkin) to the east and Vietnam to the south (Fig. 1a.) GZAZR is a
relatively poor but scenic region of 237,600 km2 with a population in 2018 of over 50 million
people. In Guangxi the coastal region is being developed for port facilities and for transport
corridors because the port at Qinzhou is the nearest one to most ASEAN countries (Fig.1b). In
the recent past, artisanal fishing, by people who lived on their boats, was a common form of
livelihood. More recently, large scale commercial marine aquaculture has flourished and many
fisher families have been re-housed on land. Crop agriculture in terraced fields is still widely
practiced (Feng, Squires and Wu, 2020) as well as sugarcane plantations and fruit orchards
(citrus, bananas and mangoes). Land-based industries are springing up with large-scale green- field developments for Smart manufacturing and Smart agriculture as well as large investments
in major high-speed rail and highway infrastructure.
Figure 1 (a) Map showing location of Guangxi Autonomous Region in south China and (b) the
location relative to ASEAN countries
Figure 2 Guangxi has an abundance of scenic spots from karst landscapes to waterfalls and
terraced croplands
URBANIZATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
China's economic transformation since 1978 has been remarkable, including incredibly rapid
growth of China’s cities. Over the last several decades, employment opportunities generated by
industrialization and the expansion of the urban construction and service sectors, along with
the gradual relaxation of controls on population movements have stimulated rural-urban
migration on a massive scale. Urban growth in China has expanded and the dynamics of the
rural-urban interface has changed dramatically (Feng and Squires, 2018, Ma et al., 2018).
China’s urbanization has consumed significant land resources as urban boundaries are
Page 3 of 11
106
Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol. 9, Issue 12, December-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
continuously expanding outward and territorial jurisdictions of cities are increasing, primarily
through the expropriation of surrounding rural land and its integration into urban areas (Feng,
Squires, & Wu. 2021) As clearly indicated in the Figure 3, the demand for urban requisition of
land has increased year by year in China due to the urbanization policy that seeks to have 70%
of the entire population in urban centers by 2030 (Ma et al, 2018). This expansion has serious
implications for rural and peri-urban land especially for the stock of arable land and, ultimately,
for food security (Squires, Hua and Wang, 2015; Jacoby, Li and Rozelle, 2002). Rural LAT is
becoming a highly contested matter as China moves to implement its plan to increase the
proportion of urban dwellers to 70% by 2030. The expansion of construction land and
environmental protection are the main drivers of the decline in arable land in China (Zhao et al.
2014)
Figure 3 China’s population has stabilized but urban centers are expanding and the
urbanization is expected to be about 70% by 2030
For example, between 2001 and 2011, the amount of land in China classified as urban
construction land had increased by 17,600 km2, reaching a total area of 41,805 km2 in 2011, an
increase of 58 percent over a decade. About 90 percent of demand for urban construction land
was met through expropriation of rural land, while only 10 percent was supplied from the
existing stock of undeveloped urban construction land (Ma et al., 2018. Many government
officials in China have largely overlooked the implication of rapid urbanization for millions of
farmers or villagers who have been “legally or illegally” made landless over the years. According
to an official statistic, three million people become landless farmers every year in China. The
total number is expected to double in 2030 because of the current pace of urbanization. There
has been a huge influx of rural migrants to urban and peri-urban areas (Tao and Xu, 2007) due
to the pull factor of highly subsidized aid and investment in infrastructural development
(Squires et al., 2012). These migrants who are facing lack of unemployment in their home
region are attracted to jobs and the government-supported opportunity to start businesses.
The BeiBu Gulf region of Guangxi and other regions in eastern China (Squires, Feng and Wu
2021) are also targets for the newly urbanized labor force.
Page 4 of 11
107
Feng, H., & Squires, V. R. (2021). Urbanization in China and the Role of Social And Natural Capital in Land Acquisition and Transfer Arrangements.
Archives of Business Research, 9(12). 104-114.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.912.11324
Land which was meant for cultivation is increasingly being acquired for construction of vast
infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings projects. Rural land requisition and
conversion for industrial use have been particularly inefficient because it has been largely
driven by administrative decisions rather than market demand resulting in land being “locked
up” and no longer available for villagers and farmers to use.
Governance issues loom large throughout China
In GZAR, as in many other parts of China, the tension between economic growth and ecological
considerations, demonstrate the limitations of top-down approaches for managing natural
resources. A top-down and centralized approach often fails to address the socio-political
context in which it is embedded and therefore lacks a complete understanding of how power
manifests itself in the bureaucracy and how it articulates through economic imperatives set by
the Chinese state. The approach to major infrastructure developments like railways, highways,
ports and power plants has depended on infrastructure-heavy and technocratic solutions to
hasten economic development in Guangxi. This has worked to undermine the focus on
integration and public participation. But changes are being made to the complex governance
bureaucracy. These changes are embedded in and run parallel to transformation in
environmental policy reflected in a wide range of legislation addressing environmental policy
challenges since the 2000s, including pollution, wildlife protection, and nature conservation. As
well as highlighting institutional, governance and policy dysfunction, climate change underpins
issues concerning land-based resources.
Issues include the need for cross-sectoral integration associated with land and water
management, agricultural production, climate [variability, change, management and adaptation
to extreme events] as well as population growth and migration leading to urbanization (He et
al., 2016). In China, natural resource managers (NRM) policy makers and other NRM personnel
are attempting to find a balance between centralized infrastructure development and
management and decentralized management systems (Squires & Feng, 2018) to overcome their
current challenges. This often requires significant new cooperation to search for more mutually
beneficial management decisions and improve the situation in different parts of a region where
local people experience varied impacts (Fig. 4).
Figure 4 Under the New Urbanization policy there is a striving for better coordination across
sectors
Note: Hukou refers to the residential permit that, until recently, was not transferable from
rural to urban
Page 5 of 11
108
Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol. 9, Issue 12, December-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
The complex nature of interlinked components within NRM (Figure 5) and combination of
governance mechanisms leads to increasing information needs to support effective resource
management. Engagement with a wider range of stakeholders and ‘knowledge holders’ is
required for effective governance (Squires, 2012).
Figure 5 Land tenure reform, governance arrangements and community response are
intimately connected There is an important role for the householders
Understanding People and Place in the rapidly developing GZAR: A Case study
Many communities, especially in non-developed market economies in rural GZAR, are in
transition as global changes interact with community-level social structure and dynamics, and
the influence of the nation-state grows. In both market economies and those in transition,
cultural aspects are reflected in methods of governance. Case studies provide an opportunity to
acknowledge both the qualities that make particular places and efforts unique as well as the
elements that may be generalized across contexts. Just as data collection and assessment are
necessary at multiple scales, so too we must document the successful (and unsuccessful)
approaches to ensure that learning can be shared among key actors (Majule, 2012, Shiferaw
and Bantilan, 2004). General principles can guide us in determining the appropriate institutions
and organizations needed to manage a complex natural system (Fig.5), but we must also take
into account the cultural, social, and economic attributes of the community at hand. While
acknowledging the complexity of human and natural systems is a critical first step, we also need
to move toward a deeper understanding of these complex systems and their interactions.
Human communities are geographically based on territories and landscapes with specific
cultural connotations and connections. People and place are major determinants of success of
any ‘development’ measures taken. There will be continuing struggle between the needs of
people (in terms of economic and social dimensions) and the needs of place (in terms of the
environment). Such a struggle is made even more complicated by the fact that the needs of place
overlap with economic and social dimensions as well. We characterize people as the economic,
Page 6 of 11
109
Feng, H., & Squires, V. R. (2021). Urbanization in China and the Role of Social And Natural Capital in Land Acquisition and Transfer Arrangements.
Archives of Business Research, 9(12). 104-114.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.912.11324
social and community aspects of natural resource management (NRM) while place is comprised
of environmental attributes that vary from one location to another, but also within. For
example, in river basins, with important aspects including upstream users vs downstream or
the reconciling the water needs of urban vs rural (mainly irrigated agriculture). Place in that
example is paramount because inevitably those upstream will have different priorities from
those downstream in a river basin. Retaining a balance between people (i.e. economic focus on
water and land markets and rural social welfare improvements via infra-structure projects)
and place issues puts pressure on authorities. Over the past 30 years here have been many
changes in China at different scales, including land fragmentation/amalgamation, exploitation
of common pool resources (forests, woodlands, wetlands and rangelands) and both household
and global governance. The biggest change has been associated with accelerated land transfers
in response to the policy to speed up the process of urbanization. The peri-urban areas have
seen much change and a significant proportion of the farmlands around villages has been
acquired for construction of infrastructure, roads, rail lines, commercial buildings, residential
and landscaping (Feng, Squires and Wu, 2021). However, land redistribution is neither efficient
nor timely. Buyers and sellers do not have the same level of information; this results in an
“information asymmetry” and an increase of transaction costs and widely variable
compensation levels. Our observation was that the households that received better
compensation payments were those that had a higher level of social capital. This is in line with
the results of study in USA by Perry and Robison (2001). Evidence is accumulating
(unpublished data) that the level of social capital that a household possesses is a major
determinant of the area of land that is compulsorily acquired by government. Those households
with low levels of social capital were less likely to emerge victorious in any dispute over level
of compensation
Social capital: New meanings for old knowledge
The term social capital captures the idea that social bonds and norms are important for
sustainability. Its value was identified by Ferdinand Tönnies as early as 1887, and later given a
theoretical framework by Coleman (1988), and brought to wide attention by Putnam (1993).
Social capital implies that there are aspects of social structure and organization that act as
resources for individuals, allowing them to realize their personal aims and interests. Such
institutions are effective because “they permit us to carry on our daily lives with a minimum of
repetition and costly negotiation” (Bromley et al. 1992). Relationships of trust, reciprocity and
exchange, common rules, norms and sanctions, and connectedness in groups are what make up
social capital, which is a necessary resource for shaping individual action to achieve positive
outcomes. Often, social capital is defined as trust, norms of reciprocity, and networks among
individuals that can be drawn upon for individual or collective benefit (Coleman, 1988; Putnam,
1993). Jin et al., (2009), Chen et al. (2004) proposed that social capital reduces transaction costs
(Perry and Robison, 2001; Kostov, 2010). In this paper, we define social capital as the extent to
which reciprocity norm, social networks and information acquisition is based on the
individual’s characteristics, in ways that serves the interests of individuals or collectives.
Social capital based on kinship and geopolitical position plays an important role in affecting
rural LAT. Social capital is different between urbanites and rural dwellers, especially farmers
and villagers.
Page 7 of 11
110
Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol. 9, Issue 12, December-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
METHODOLOGY
Measuring social capital is not easy and some of the published procedures are too complex to
be readily applied at the village level. We therefore sought to simplify the process and make it
more readily usable. Table 1 shows the basis for our approach. The social capital analyzed in
this study included formal networks, informal networks, and the degree of difficulty associated
with accessing information. We conducted interviews and surveys. Participants included
household heads (both male and female with some 40 years of age, or younger, and others
above 60 years of age). We included staff from the village administration. Answers/statements
to some questions were analyzed against a 5-point Likert-like scale in which 1 stands for
completely agree; 2 for agree; 3 not sure; 4 is disagree and 5 is totally disagree. A Likert* scale
is a multiple-indicator or multiple-item measure of a set of attitudes relating to a particular
topic or statement. The goal of a Likert scale is to measure intensity of feelings about the subject
or matter in question (Allen and Seamen, 2007).
We used the factor analysis method to assess the villagers’ social capital index and the Kaiser- Meyer Olkin test (KMO). The KMO was 0.66 (> .06) so was relevant and appropriate) and we
identified three main groupings (F1, F2 and F3) to give a total contribution to variance of 64.6%.
F1 contains S4, S6, S7 and S8 and contributed 41.6%; F2 contains S1, S5, S9 and S10 and
contributed 11.5% while F3 contained S2, S3 and S11 and contributed 11.4%. With this method
we obtained a value for the villagers’ social value according to Equation 1.
Social capital = F1* 41.6 +F2 *11.5 +F3 *11.4)/64.4 Eq.1
Table 1 Assessment of villagers’ social capital
Dimension Question/statement Mean STD
error
Note
Formal
network
(S1) Membership of
party, club, social
group
(S2) Participate in
religious activities
(S3) Would you make
a contribution to a
project that would
bring good to your
village
0.39 0.49
0.26 0.44
1.48 0.87
1=yes 0=no
1=yes 0=no
Likert-like
scale
Informal
network
(S4) Have a lot of good
friends?
(S5) Often get
together with
relatives and friends
(S6) Have some
relatives or friends
working in
administrative roles?
(S7) Average yearly
spending on
relationship-building
(weddings, funerals)
2.10 0.70
1.81 0.88
4.54 1.19
10.32 2.34
0.85 0.49
Likert-like
scale
Likert-like
scale
Likert-like
scale
5000
Yuan (CNY)
Page 8 of 11
111
Feng, H., & Squires, V. R. (2021). Urbanization in China and the Role of Social And Natural Capital in Land Acquisition and Transfer Arrangements.
Archives of Business Research, 9(12). 104-114.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.912.11324
(S8) Are there some
customs/habits that
everyone must
observe in your
village?
1=yes 0=no
Access to
information
(S9) Is it easy to get
information on land
values and
compensation levels?
(S10) Is it easy to get
access to agricultural
extension services
and new technologies
(S11) Would you
identify as someone
who is receptive to
new ideas or
technologies?
2.86 1.13
3.10 1.17
3.79 0.94
Likert-like
scale
Likert-like
scale
Likert-like
scale
Data source: field survey in Qinbei County, Guangxi
Acknowledging the power of people and their relationships
The knowledge and values of local communities are now being acknowledged as contributing
to better governance of natural resources. For as long as people have managed natural
resources, they have engaged in forms of collective action, collaborating on management of
farm, forest, grassland, and aquatic resources. Collective action has been institutionalized in
many forms of association. Relationships of trust, reciprocity and exchange, common rules,
norms and sanctions, and connectedness in groups are what make up social capital, which is a
necessary resource for shaping individual action to achieve positive outcomes. The concept of
social capital captures the idea that social bonds and norms are important for system
sustainability. The importance of local institutions has long been understood in the common- property literature but has only recently come to be recognized as important for conservation
and management of natural resources (O'Riordan & Stoll-Kleeman 2002).
Changing the behavior of individuals (rather than of groups or communities) has become a pre- occupation of many policy makers and practitioners. As a result, local institutions have
diminished in importance and often entirely disappeared, and so the state has increasingly
taken responsibility for natural resources, often under the mistaken assumption that local
resources are inevitably mismanaged by local people (Gadgil et al. 2000). According to Brand
(2009) the maintenance of critical natural capital (a sub-set of social capital) is an important
objective of sustainable economic development. “Critical natural capital represents a
multidimensional concept, as it mirrors the different frameworks of various scientific
disciplines and social groups in valuing nature”. Widespread and rampant LAT that
accompanies accelerated economic development in peri-urban and rural areas needs to take
critical natural capital into account.
Evidence from both the land and marine sectors shows that when people are well connected in
groups and networks, and when their knowledge is sought, incorporated, and built upon during
Page 9 of 11
112
Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol. 9, Issue 12, December-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
planning and implementation of conservation and development activities, then they are more
likely to sustain stewardship and protection over the long term. Community Participation is a
vital element (Cernea 1991) especially when designing management institutions for common- pool resources (Ostrom, 1990). The engagement with relevant stakeholders is vital, and the
first step to a successful cooperative management approach is communication. Possessing
multiple ways to communicate about the resources or services being managed—to allow
“movement beyond anonymity”—has proven to be an essential element in successful co- management of shared resources. This closely aligned to what Ffolliot and Brooks (2014) call
locally-led initiatives.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Regulatory reform has emerged as an important policy area in Guangxi Autonomous Region
(GAZR). For regulatory reforms to be beneficial, the regulatory regimes need to be transparent,
coherent, and comprehensive, spanning from establishing the appropriate institutional
framework to liberalizing network industries, advocating and enforcing competition policy and
law and opening external and internal markets to trade and investment. An unregulated market
economy may lead to social inequality that are considered to be socially or politically
undesirable. If this is so, then the purpose of regulatory reform is not to leave the market
unfettered, but to ensure that the policy objectives that have been fixed can be efficiently met.
By keeping unnecessary burdens and distortions to a minimum, the benefits of each piece of
new regulation can be assured. Ecosystem-human interdependencies happen within complex
socio-ecological systems in GZAR, with highly interdependent governance arrangements,
technology choice and economic considerations (Fig 4) but the value of social capital among the
villagers and other rural dwellers cannot be over-emphasized when it comes to getting fair
compensation when LAT projects are imposed.
Ecosystem-human interdependencies happen within complex socio-ecological systems in
GZAR, with highly interdependent governance arrangements, technology choice and economic
considerations (Fig 6).
Page 10 of 11
113
Feng, H., & Squires, V. R. (2021). Urbanization in China and the Role of Social And Natural Capital in Land Acquisition and Transfer Arrangements.
Archives of Business Research, 9(12). 104-114.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.912.11324
References and Further Reading
Allen, E., & Seaman, C. A. 2007. Likert Scales and Data Analyses. Quality Progress, 40, 64-65.
Brand, F. 2009. ‘Critical Natural Capital Revisited: Ecological Resilience and Sustainable Development’. Ecological
Economics 68(3):605-612
Bowen, A., Cochrane, S. and Fankhauser, S. 2012. ‘Climate Change, Adaptation and Economic Growth’. Climatic
Change 113: 95-106.
Cernia, M. M. Putting people first, sociological variables in rural development (2nd ed.) 1991. Oxford Univ. Press
Charles, A., Loucks L., Berkes F., Armitage, D. 2020. Community science: A typology and its implications for
governance of social-ecological systems. Environmental Science & Policy 106: 77-86
Coleman. J.S. 1988. Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital. The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 94,
Supplement: Organizations and Institutions: Sociological and Economic Approaches to the Analysis of Social
Structure pp. S95-S120
Egbuche, C.T., Zhang, J. & Ukaga, O.2009. Community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) in Xinhui,
Guangdong Province, China. Environ Dev Sustain 11, 905–928 doi.org/10.1007/s10668-008-9160-5
Feng, H.Y. and Squires, V.R. 2018. Integration of Rural and Urban Society in China and Implications for
Urbanization, Infrastructure, Land and Labor in the New Era. South Asian Journal of Social Studies and Economics
2(3): 1-13, 2018; Article no.SAJSSE.45575
Feng H.Y, Squires, V.R. and Wu J 2021. Linkages between ecosystem services provisioning, urban growth and
the rural-urban interface: A case study from China. LAND 10,337. doi.org/10.3390/land10040337
Ffolliott, P.F. and K.N. Brooks. 2014. Integrated watershed management for water and other natural resources in
river basins of the United States pp. 60-81 In: Victor R. Squires, Hugh M. Milner and Katherine A. Daniell (eds).
River Basin Management in the twenty-first century: Understanding People and Place. CRC Press. Boca Raton
Gadgil, M., Berkes, F. and Folke. C. 1993. Indigenous knowledge for biodiversity conservation. Ambio 22:151-
156.
Gadgil M., Seshagiri Rao, P.R.,Utkarsh, G.,Pramod, P and Chatre, A 2000. New meanings for old knowledge: the
people’s biodiversity registers programme. Ecological Applications 10:1307–1317.
Gare, R. 2012. China and the Struggle for Ecological Civilization. Capitalism Nature Socialism. Volume 23, No.4,
December 2012: 10-26
Goulder, L. H., Parry, I.W.H., Williams III, R.C. and Burtraw, D. 1999. The Cost-Effectiveness of Alternative
Instruments for Environmental Protection in a Second-Best Setting, Journal of Public Economics, 72:329-360.
He, C.,Chen, T.. Mao X. and Zhou, Y. 2016. Economic transition, urbanization and population
in China. Habitat International 51:39-47
Jacoby H G, Li G, Rozelle S. 2002.Hazards of expropriation: Tenure insecurity and investment in rural China.
American Economic Review, 92(5): 1420-1447.
doi: 10.1257/000282802762024575
Kostov, P.2010. "Do Buyers’ Characteristics and Personal Relationships Affect Agricultural Land Prices?," Land
Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 86(1), pages 48-65.
Lazzaria, N., Becerroa , M.A. , Sanabria-Fernandeza, J.A., Martín-Lópezda, B. 2018. Spatial characterization of
coastal marine social-ecological systems: Insights for integrated management . Environmental Science & Policy 92
: 56-65
Ma, B., Tian, G., Kong, L. and Liu, X. 2018. How China’s linked urban-rural construction land policy impacts rural
landscape patterns: a simulation study in Tianjin, China. Landscape Ecol. 33:1417-1434
Majule, A.E. 2012. ‘Implications of Ecological and Social Characteristics to Community Livelihoods in the Coastal
Areas of Tanzania’. African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology 6(1): 72-79
Page 11 of 11
114
Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol. 9, Issue 12, December-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
O'Riordan, T., Stoll-Kleemann, S. 2009. Biodiversity, Sustainability and Human Communities: Protecting Beyond
the Protected, Cambridge Univ. Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511492655
Ostrom, E. and Cox, M. 2010. Moving beyond panaceas: A Multi-tiered diagnostic approach for socio-ecological
analysis. Environmental Conservation 37(4):451-63
Perry G.M. and Robison L.J. 2001, Evaluating the Influence of Personal Relationships on Land Sale Prices: A Case
Study in Oregon. Land Economics 77(3) DOI: 10.2307/3147132
Putnam, R. D. 1993. ’The prosperous community: social capital and public life’ American Prospect, 4:13
Ruiz, I. and Corbera, E. 2013. Community-Based Conservation and Traditional Ecological Knowledge:
Implications for Social-Ecological Resilience. Ecology and Society 18(4):12-22
Shiferaw, B. and Bantilan, C. 2004. ‘Agriculture, Rural Poverty and Natural Resource Management in Less
Favored Environments: Revisiting Challenges and Conceptual Issues’. Food, Agriculture & Environment 2(1): 328-
339.
Squires, V.R. 2012. Governance and the role of institutions in sustainable development in the Central Asian
region. pp. 275-303 In: Victor R. Squires (Ed.) Rangeland stewardship in Central Asia: Balancing improved
livelihoods, Biodiversity Conservation and Land Protection. Springer, Dordrecht, 2012
Squires, V.R. and Feng, H.Y. 2018. Re-formulating Land and Resource Management Policies: Devolving Decision- making Power to Local Communities in China and Mongolia. Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics &
Sociology 25(2): 1-13, 2018; Article no . AJAEES.41369
Squires, V.R., Hua LM and Wang, G, 2015. Food security: A multi-faceted and multi-dimensional issue in China.
Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment Vol.13 (2): 24-31. 2015
Tao, R and Xu Zh.2007. Urbanization, rural land system and social security of migrants in China. The Journal of
Development Studies 43(7)1307-1320
Zhao X, Zhang Z, Wang X, Zuo L, Liu B, Yi L, Xu J, Wen Q 2014. Analysis of Chinese cultivated land’s spatial- temporal changes and causes in recent 30 years. Trans Chin Soc Agric Eng 30(3):1–11 (in Chinese)