Online Urbanization

Through description of phenomenon of ecommerce in rural China, I try to explain the influence on China’s urban-rural relationship in a framework. The propose is not to find a solution for existing problem of urbanization in China, but try to reply research questions: 1. What is rural ecommerce? 2. What is the urban-rural spatial relationship under the influence of rural ecommerce in China?

The theories on “space of flows” and “grassrooting space of flows” from Manual Castells explain accurately the empowerment furnished by the Internet in the process of globalization, stimulated by elites in this information era, and also the production of anti-globalization regional grass-root activities. The notion of space of flows can be described as the physical and virtual space in which all higher-level transactions (monetary, communicative, informational, etc.) take place, while “grassrooting” refers to the integration of these transactions into local communities. These are the two sides of the same coin. However, there are limitations in the current literature. The current theory on space of flows and grassrooting space of flows focuses primarily on urban areas and does not adequately account for urban-rural relationships that have developed in the last ten years in some areas. As a compelling case study, China’s urban-rural conflict presents interesting elements. In China, the integration of space of flows are clearly reflected in the urban-rural unity and social practices, epitomized in the emergence of county-level rural e-commerce .

The flow of information, cultures, goods, capital, and human resources echo off each other inside the network, while offering urban-rural integration based on market economy in traditional Chinese societies. Grassroot market towns and village markets were actually very well developed in traditional Chinese societies. In the extensive connections among urban and rural lives, business transactions brought about by the flow of every single production and life element determined the model for China’s traditional society—market economy.

Since 2010, a tripartite alliance (Suichang E-commerce Association including Suichang E-commerce Co., Ltd. and Ganjie Ltd. at Suichang) worked with local governments and service providers to explore a path of rural e-commerce development. As city environments rapidly deteriorated and food safety became an increasing concern, city dwellers began to aspire towards the qualities of an idyllic life: having access to untainted nature, clean water, as well as the opportunity to plant their own food. Their demand grew increasingly urgent as seen in the incident of dead pigs floating on the Huang Pu River in Shanghai directly leading to the conceptualization of Suichang Farm Pig brand by Taobao, Sui Chang E-commerce Corporation, and local government. Excess production capacity had led to a halt in the urbanizing process. Meanwhile, the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the Internet has accelerated the upgrade of rural and urban SMEs. Information transparency and efficient market regulation brought by the Internet reduced transaction cost, which offer a promising comeback for the downturn economy in China. Thousands of households began to start up new business online. As the rural to urban (“upstream”) of agricultural products and the urban to rural (“downstream”) of industrial products, rural infrastructure and commercial facilities are being built up. This provided a way in which urban-rural integration could be achieved in the future, both keeping the rural environment intact and renew the way of organization of the rural population.

Taobao, Rural Taobao and other business departments of Alibaba have unified their efforts towards the rural development strategy put forward by Jack Ma and built an “aircraft carrier” for online services. This carrier indeed represents the flowing powers within—it does not belong to any village, county, city, province or any country. On the contrary, it represents a stream of flowing power in the information era brought about by the powers of globalization and Internet-based enterprises,1 who have achieved networked and globalized financing and operation and whose influences have directly reached out to villages by passing the authorities of the state, the province, the city and the county.

With an increasing number of counties and rural areas gaining access to the network via online services sector, these changes have created a new space model conducive to urbanization. These are supportive of Castell’s concept of “grass-rooted flow of space,” which underscores the fact that insufficient rural infrastructure (especially public facilities and services) has propelled the development of Network Society below county level.

The urban and rural structural patterns are related to their social relations. The combination of technology and local communities has rendered the space of flows more grass-rooted, and has expanded the space of flows paradigm to much larger scale. The Internet of everything is coming upon us. The Space of flows is so pervasive, that maybe there is practically no non space of flows. As discussed previously, the phenomena in rural China are references of this trend.