A Study on Rural Social Network and Village Planning Paradigm in China

摘要

Current village planning in China, which mostly draws on the experience from urban planning, is a rational planning model based on elite decision-making, resulting in many problems. Essentially, planning is a kind of institutional arrangement according to the demands of multiple actors under certain social context. Since actors and their behaviors in villages are far different from those in cities, leading to the reorganization of planning assumptions and prerequisites, village planning paradigms are prominently distinct from urban planning paradigms. This paper figures out the significance of social networks and argues that village planning is a kind of communicative planning based on endogenous order, referring to the paradigm development course of Western urban planning theories and the features of Chinese villages. In conclusion, it stresses that village planning should focus on social network and promote communication, coordination, and consensus-building, and accordingly planners should adjust their role.