Compared with traditional administrative villages and modern urban communities, rural communities refer to the social life of rural residents living in a certain geographical range based on agricultural production methods. Rural community is a more flexible institutional platform than natural villages and villagers' groups. It is built around how to form a new social life, focusing on improving people's quality of life, cohesion and identity by integrating resources and improving services.
Rural sociologists have different understandings of the meaning of rural community. Some people emphasize that rural communities have a common center; Some emphasize that their residents have a strong sense of identity; Some emphasize the existence of specific social organizations and social systems; Others emphasize a special way of life. Based on the views of various schools, the basic elements of rural communities are: ① vast territory, low degree of residents' settlement, and agriculture as the main factor; (two) the formation of social groups and organizations with certain characteristics; ③ Take villages and towns as residents' activity centers; ④ Residents in the same rural community have similar lifestyles, values and codes of conduct, and have a certain sense of identity.
According to the time sequence of development and the distribution of residential areas, rural communities can be divided into scattered villages, concentrated villages and market towns.
1 .sancun community
It is a scattered small village originally formed or formed due to special geographical environment. The characteristics of this kind of community are: generally, the degree of development is low, the degree of settlement is not high, and there are three or five households, and seven or eight households are together, either relatives or dead. Residents are mostly engaged in planting and breeding, with a single economy, frequent exchanges between residents, profound understanding, mutual help and close relationship. However, such communities are generally isolated from the outside world, with poor information and inconvenient transportation. Residents' traditional ideas are strong and conservative, community changes are slow, and social mobility is small. With the development of social economy, scattered village cooperatives will generally gradually transition to collective village cooperatives.
2. Jicun Community
It is a village with a large population, large scale and concentrated residence. Generally, dozens or even hundreds of households live together, mostly in plains, coastal areas, traffic lines, deltas and other places. The interpersonal relationship in Jicun community is not as close as that in Sancun, and the blood clan relationship begins to fade, and one or more residents from other clans often live together. Social organizations and social systems are not just scattered villages. There are many service centers in Yoshimura, and some villages already have "markets" or fairs.
3. Market Town Community
Developed from Yoshimura, it has become a small political, economic and cultural center in rural areas. In modern market towns, there are already processing industries, commerce and service industries. And such communities have become rural small commodity distribution centers and rural industrial bases. In the market town community, the economic structure and residents' composition are more complicated, interpersonal relationships are more alienated, the blood relationship and geographical relationship between residents are gradually transitioning to industry relations, the traditional concepts of residents are gradually changing to modern concepts, and social organizations and social systems are more perfect. With the development of commercialization, socialization and modernization in rural areas, the social functions of market towns are increasingly diversified.
In addition to the above division, rural communities can also be divided into plain villages, lakeside villages, coastal villages, mountain villages and suburban villages according to their location; According to industry, it is divided into agricultural villages, fishery villages, animal husbandry villages, mining villages and comprehensive villages.
Compared with urban communities, rural communities have the following characteristics:
1. It has a wider geographical area and is more dependent on the natural ecological environment.
The main means of production of generalized agriculture (planting, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, insects, microorganisms, etc.). ) is the land and its appendages, and plants growing on the land and animals taking the land as the carrier occupy a lot of geographical space; A large number of uninhabitable mountains and waters are also mainly distributed in rural areas, making rural communities have a wider area and a superior ecological environment than cities. The ecological environment has a direct impact on rural production and life, and agricultural production is highly dependent on the ecological environment. If vegetation and forests are destroyed, it will cause soil erosion, affect the climate, lead to natural disasters and reduce crop yield.
2. Low population density and low education level.
Rural areas are vast and the population density is far less than that of cities. Generally speaking, developing countries have a single rural economic structure, a low level of education, culture, science and technology, underdeveloped health services, relatively closed traffic information and profound traditional culture. The occupational structure of the population is relatively simple and single.
3. Social problems are not as complex, concentrated and prominent as those in cities, and the crime rate is low (see rural social problems).
4. The occupation of residents is mainly agriculture in a broad sense.
Rural communities emerged with the emergence and development of primitive agriculture. With the development of rural communities, the industrial structure has undergone major changes, the proportion of non-agricultural industries will gradually increase, the agricultural labor force will gradually transfer to non-agricultural industries, the secondary and tertiary industries will develop, and the number of small towns will increase accordingly.
Social organization in rural areas is simpler than that in cities.
In general traditional rural communities, there are more habitual organizations (such as clans, religions and gangs), fewer statutory organizations, and underdeveloped bureaucratic organizations with different disciplines and levels of responsibility.
6. Economy, culture and technology are relatively backward.
The long-term opposition and division between urban and rural areas is one of the important reasons why rural economy, culture and technology are relatively backward. The popularity of education is not as high as that of cities, and the popularization and application of advanced science and technology is also lower than that of cities.
7. Residents are closely related by blood and geography.
Especially in the rural areas where the natural economy has dominated for a long time, interpersonal relationships are limited by narrow areas and have not yet got rid of the shackles of blood and geographical relations.
8. The lifestyle is monotonous, with strong traditional colors, weak sense of time and slow pace of life.
In the case of underdeveloped culture, education, sports and entertainment, leisure life is monotonous. The structure of personal consumer goods is relatively simple, and the consumption level is not high. Residents' interest in political life is not strong, and their awareness of participating in politics is relatively weak. Influenced by the natural economic mode of production for a long time, they are superstitious and conservative, with strong regional and local concepts, unwilling to leave their homes, seeking stability and fearing chaos, valuing agriculture over business, valuing production over management, having a strong sense of identity and profound traditional culture.
When we understand rural communities, we should pay attention to the following characteristics:
Rural community is a social entity.
Rural community is a relatively complete social structure system. Some common phenomena in rural society can also be reflected in rural communities. People can discover various social phenomena in rural society through rural communities and hear the truest wishes of community residents from rural social life. It can be said that rural society is composed of several different types of rural communities, and the construction of new socialist countryside should start with the construction of rural communities.
The main body of rural communities is rural residents.
Rural residents are the premise of the emergence and existence of rural communities and the builders of rural communities. The construction of rural communities is closely related to the life of rural residents. This requires us to realize, safeguard and develop the fundamental interests of rural residents as the starting point and end result of building rural communities, respect the dominant position of rural residents, actively improve their enthusiasm and initiative in building rural communities, and build rural communities into social and economic living places that rural residents are satisfied with.
The basic economic activity is agricultural production.
In urban communities, the labor force's livelihood is basically engaged in secondary and tertiary industries, while the basic economic activity of rural communities is engaged in agricultural production. However, since the reform and opening up, the industrial structure in rural areas of China has changed significantly. With the development of farmland planting, forestry, animal husbandry, by-products and secondary and tertiary industries have developed on a large scale. In many areas, the number of rural residents engaged in secondary and tertiary industries has exceeded the number engaged in agriculture, and the income of farmers from non-agricultural industries has also exceeded that from agriculture.
Multifunctionality of rural communities
As far as rural communities in China are concerned, firstly, they have economic functions. It is mainly manifested in the role of rural communities in organizing, coordinating and managing production and business activities and providing prenatal, intrapartum and postpartum services. Second, it has a political function. It mainly shows that rural communities play a role in implementing the principles and policies of the party and the government, safeguarding villagers' legitimate rights and interests, establishing and developing various community organizations, and promoting villagers' autonomy and grassroots democracy and legal system construction. Third, it has a cultural function. It mainly shows that rural communities are responsible for developing education, organizing cultural entertainment and sports activities, and organizing rural communities has many functions, such as maintaining social order, mediating civil disputes, managing family planning, and maintaining community social stability. Fifth, it has the function of social construction. Such as developing social security and welfare undertakings in communities.
Population density of rural communities
Rural communities have low population density and large settlement scale. Small population density and the scale of population settlement are the main indicators to measure the population situation of a community. Compared with urban communities, because agricultural production activities need to be carried out on a large area of land, rural residents cannot live together like urban residents and can only live in many places on a small scale. This feature requires us to adjust measures to local conditions and respect objective laws when improving the construction, development and management of rural communities.
Family function is more prominent in rural communities.
Rural families are not only responsible for childbirth, support, consumption, culture and entertainment, but also the most basic unit of agricultural production and the main constituent unit of rural organizations. The most basic characteristics of the family can fully meet the requirements of agricultural activities. Moreover, in rural social life, individuals often participate in organizing activities as family members, and community organizations often take families as units and accept tasks in the process of activities. It can be said that the family is the basic unit of rural organizations.
Blood relationship and geographical relationship in rural communities
Blood relationship and geographical relationship play a fundamental role in rural communities, but the role of industry relations is becoming more and more important. Blood relatives, in-laws, and the complex network formed from generation to generation between blood relatives and in-laws are the core and link of rural social relations. At the same time, neighborhood relationship is also an important interpersonal relationship in rural communities. However, in modern rural areas, the mode of consanguinity is becoming diversified and rational, and the relationship between relatives is increasingly dependent on the effective and mutually beneficial maintenance of their cooperation in production and management.
There are many types of rural communities.
From the production function, it can be divided into rural areas, forest villages, pastoral villages, fishing villages, etc. Judging from the legal status, it can be divided into two types: natural villages and established villages; If classified from the perspective of morphology, it can be divided into village-based communities and village-based communities. The diverse types of rural communities require us to carry out rural community construction according to local conditions.
Compared with urban community construction, there are many problems in rural community construction:
1. The awareness of rural community construction is insufficient, and the awareness of social participation needs to be improved.
Rural community construction is in the exploratory stage and is a new thing. Some places adapt, while others don't. Township party and government leaders mainly pay attention to economic construction and social development, but not enough attention to rural communities. Why build rural communities? What is the purpose of building rural communities? What is the relationship between rural community construction and villagers' autonomy, new rural construction and urbanization? Little is known about this kind of problem.
2. Lack of investment and funds in rural community construction, unbalanced development of community construction, high operating cost and insufficient stamina.
The level of rural economic development is low, the net income of farmers is not high, and there are no industries and enterprises in some rural areas, so it is impossible to spend money on public welfare undertakings. The investment in public facilities in rural areas is obviously insufficient, such as running schools, building roads and medical care in rural areas. Rural areas are the primitive areas of economy, agriculture is a weak industry, and the enthusiasm of rural areas to participate in communities is not high. Without economic resources, the community has no foundation for survival and development, and insufficient funds are the main obstacles for the community to carry out its work. Community-run public welfare undertakings are funded by superiors and raised by the masses. If these two funds are lost, it will be difficult to develop community work. The development of community work depends largely on the amount of money given by the relevant organizations at higher levels, and the funds supported by the government are often focused. The shortage of public goods and services in rural areas has not been fundamentally improved, and there is a great demand for funds for rural community construction. It is not enough to rely solely on local and departmental input, but also the support of the state. The first is to increase capital investment; The second is to integrate the state's investment in agriculture, rural areas and farmers, all aspects of society, the existing resources in the village and all other available resources to form an investment advantage.
3. Community construction is mainly promoted by relevant party and government departments, with insufficient participation of villagers and lack of internal motivation for community development.
Judging from the current situation, the propaganda work of community construction is not in place, residents are not clear about community construction, and most farmers do not really understand what community autonomous organizations are, and do not understand the purpose and responsibilities of the establishment of community autonomous organizations. Community autonomous organization is a mass organization that voluntarily participates in community construction under the new situation. If farmers actively participate, it will greatly promote rural social and economic development. The reality is that the vast majority of rural residents have no interest and mind to engage in community service work, especially community self-governing organizations, and think that they have to do work without remuneration. At present, China's rural economic development is far from reaching the level of farmers voluntarily paying for community development and improving community service and quality of life, so community construction is mainly promoted by government organizations from top to bottom. At the current level of economic development, labor is still a means for people to make a living. Without the drive of interests, it is impossible for many farmers to join community self-governing organizations. Therefore, the government will pay a higher cost in promoting community construction.
4. The villagers lack the consciousness of democratic autonomy and are indifferent to community politics.
Influenced by traditional feudal ideas, most villagers can't correctly understand and accept democratic management, and show a negative and indifferent attitude towards elections. At present, village management and social management are often weak, and there are also great problems in rural villagers' autonomy. In the process of establishing community autonomous organizations, the active promotion and support of county civil affairs bureau and township government played a decisive role. If only the villagers prepare their own communities, it is impossible to establish them in rural areas with weak economy. In rural areas in underdeveloped areas, traditional ideas are deeply rooted, and small-scale scattered production and lifestyle lead to low degree of organization of farmers and relatively weak awareness of political and democratic rights. They are accustomed to the traditional centralized and unified guidance, coupled with economic backwardness, farmers are more dependent on the government and society. As long as the higher authorities can bring benefits to the village, everyone is willing to do something. Because of blood relationship, human feelings, morality and self-protection consciousness, authority is a huge social force in the current countryside. Village politics often coincides with the sphere of clan influence, and village governance is restricted by clan influence. Some people who have been elected as village cadres are mainly family members, with a strong sense of exclusion, and the phenomenon of bullying the small still exists. On the other hand, some grass-roots organizations are weak and lax, lacking cohesion and fighting capacity, and some are even controlled by local evil forces. The leading bodies of the two committees are poor in grasping the overall situation, promoting development, coordinating interests, serving the masses and handling affairs according to law. The openness of government affairs, village affairs and finance is far from institutionalized and standardized. In some rural areas, grassroots cadres have a weak sense of democracy and legal system, lack due respect for farmers and their legitimate rights and interests, and uncivilized administration and uncivilized law enforcement occur from time to time. In some places, there are still arbitrary charges and levies. It takes a long development process to give full play to the role of community in villagers' autonomy and democratic political construction.
5. Party and government organizations in some areas have offside and dislocation in community construction management, and have not given full play to the main role of villagers.
Community cadres are generally elected by the top leaders in rural areas, not by the villagers themselves. Of course, this is related to the quality and concept of villagers, but what is more important is the manipulation of community construction by power. The guidance of village branches and village committees to community self-governing organizations can easily become leaders, making community self-governing organizations
It has become a subordinate institution of the village committee or village branch, which has changed the original intention of the establishment of community autonomous organizations. From the perspective of actual organization and management, community autonomous organizations carry out various tasks under the arrangement of village committees and official organizations. In fact, they are equivalent to the first-level administrative organizations, performing some functions of village committees. Its existence can only explain the imperfection and atrophy of villagers' autonomy function.
6. The ownership of this community is unclear.
From the government's point of view, many government functional departments regard the community as a clerk and put it inside the department. Unprofitable, thankless? Functions are imposed on the community, and any government functional department involved in the community has the right to give orders to the community, which leads to confusion in community work. Such as health charges, village capacity management, census registration, data statistics, etc. The functions of some government departments are cumbersome, complex and repetitive, which makes the community overwhelmed and has no energy to serve the villagers. This practice not only increases the burden on the community, but also causes the villagers' incomprehension of the community. Due to the unclear status and function of the community in practice, the autonomy of community construction is not strong, the community function is not fully exerted, and even deviates from the fundamental function of serving the villagers.
7. The obligations and interests, obligations and rights of community building are not equal.
From the reality of community management and service, there are serious objects of unequal obligations and interests, obligations and rights in community construction. For example, community management and services that have the right and benefit are taken away by government functional departments, leaving only some troubles that have no right and no benefit. The rights are in the functional departments of the government, but the obligations fall on the community. This is an important reason why community construction is difficult to carry out, community management and service are not strong and enthusiasm is not high. At the same time, there are also a few leading cadres who say something superficial, not really focusing on agriculture and doing practical things for the masses, but thinking of political achievements and seeking personal career. Many community construction is just an empty shelf, which can't achieve the purpose and real effect of community construction. It is easy to build several demonstration villages in community construction, but it is difficult to popularize them in rural areas. The countryside is so vast, there are so many villages, and the village community needs the help of the government, so the income will be very low.
8. The comprehensive quality of community cadres and community workers is not high.
First of all, the current community cadres and workers are older and less educated. There are not many methods and tricks to solve various problems in community construction, and they are unclear about the influence of market economy in community construction and lack the ability to deal with new things in community construction. Secondly, the treatment of community cadres and workers is too low, the enthusiasm of on-the-job community cadres is not high, and young and promising villagers are unwilling to participate in community construction and management, resulting in a lack of successors for community cadres and workers. Third, the training of community cadres and workers is not enough. Generally, there is no training before taking office, and the training after taking office is formal, with incomplete training content and single training method. Participants lack full staff, and there is more business training for government functional departments and too little training for community villagers.
9. Poverty in rural communities is large and the security mechanism is not perfect. Poor people affect community construction.
The existing social security system of the government and various related activities and carriers of relevant departments have limited coverage, and the coverage in rural areas is very low. Compared with the vast number of poor and vulnerable groups, it is only a drop in the bucket, and saving lives can't save the poor. Since the construction of new countryside, the conditions of rural communities have improved, but compared with other areas, the development level is low, the poverty is large, and the community collective economy is weak. Many infrastructure facilities funded by village collectives cannot be implemented, further deepening the material poverty and cultural poverty of the community. Bad natural conditions, fragile living environment and frequent natural disasters are the most important factors of rural community poverty. The remote distribution of villages and backward traffic have increased the difficulty of community development. Unreasonable industrial structure and backward technology are the technical roots of village poverty. Most poor villages have backward production methods and simple production structures. The economy is mainly composed of agriculture, animal husbandry and fruit industry, with almost no industry and processing industry. The proportion of rural tertiary industry is small. Most farmers only rely on limited planting income to survive, with a single source of income and slow economic development. The common problems in rural areas in underdeveloped areas are unreasonable industrial structure, backward convergence of industrial structure adjustment, backward agricultural production level, slow economic development, weak collective economy, lack of basic living facilities in rural areas, low cultural quality of farmers and huge groups in difficulty. Since the reform and opening up, cadres and the masses in underdeveloped areas have made certain economic development through hard work. However, due to the influence of subjective and objective factors such as history, location, structure, information and ideas, the deep-seated contradictions that restrict the development of agriculture and rural areas have not been eliminated, and the long-term mechanism to promote the stable development of rural economy and increase farmers' income has not yet been formed. Economic development is still relatively slow, and the gap with developed regions is widening.
10. Rural community infrastructure is relatively backward, community construction lacks hardware, especially public facilities, and existing resources have not been effectively utilized.
The dirty appearance of villages is a long-standing problem in rural community construction. Generally speaking, compared with rural areas in developed areas, the investment in village-level infrastructure in underdeveloped areas is obviously insufficient. At present, most villages are in a state of disorderly construction. Hollow village? A large number of phenomena exist. Although some villages have been planned, it is difficult to standardize them for a while because of the long-term construction pattern of old villages. Restricted by the low income of villagers, rural road construction is relatively backward, many villages have insufficient investment in landscaping, and farmers' production and living environment is poor.
1 1. The permanent population in the village has changed, and the main labor force for community construction is missing.
Most of the young and middle-aged laborers in rural communities go out to find jobs in nearby counties, or work or do business, forming a labor economy. Their labor income is the economic pillar of some peasant families, which promotes the development of rural economy to a certain extent. However, the emigration of a large number of educated laborers not only hindered the improvement of the agricultural production level in the village, but also made the rural community construction lose its main role. At the same time, because most of the young and middle-aged laborers in rural communities go out, rural community education is empty. The hope value of community construction is reduced. A large number of young and middle-aged laborers go out to work, and their children usually stay and live with their grandparents. It is common to raise children from generation to generation. The education level of ancestors is generally low, and the upbringing of grandchildren is limited to food, clothing and peace. It doesn't matter whether the academic performance is good or not. Children lack family guidance, discipline and warmth.
12. Lack of atmosphere in community cultural construction.
The investment in rural cultural undertakings is obviously insufficient, cultural stations and library facilities are outdated and backward, farmers have difficulty in reading, watching plays and movies, and their spiritual and cultural life is very monotonous. In addition to watching TV, a large number of villagers like playing cards in their spare time. Gambling causes poverty, family conflicts and social security problems from time to time, which affects the formation of community culture. With the profound changes in rural economic and social structure, the ideological and cultural characteristics of farmers in underdeveloped areas are increasingly apparent. In some rural areas, non-socialist ideas and values are growing, decadent culture is lagging behind, the boundaries between right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness are confused, feudal superstitious activities are rampant, pornography, gambling, drugs and other ugly phenomena appear, clan culture is prevalent, and many outstanding problems worthy of attention have appeared in social and spiritual life.
13. There is a problem with departmental coordination.
There is no organic coordination among functional departments in community construction, and there is no overall solution policy. You do your own thing and I'll do mine. Rural community construction is a grand social system engineering, involving all aspects of society. All departments must work together in Qi Xin to make a complete and unified plan. Among them, the civil affairs department, as the lead department of rural community construction, has great responsibilities, and other functional departments also have great responsibilities. This requires a good mechanism for the participation and coordination of relevant departments under the leadership of local governments.
The construction of rural communities is still in the exploratory stage. Judging from the existing models and experiences abroad, combined with the reality of rural areas in China, rural community construction has broad development prospects and great promotion value. With the active guidance of the government, the extensive participation of the people, the real insistence on proceeding from reality and the real emphasis on giving play to the people's main role, the rural community construction will certainly develop faster and better.
Promoting the development of community service with government public service.
Adhere to the combination of government public services, market-oriented services and villagers' self-service, and establish and improve the rural community service system from the actual needs of farmers. All localities vigorously promote the extension of public services to rural areas, expand service areas, improve service methods, explore the establishment of mechanisms to guide the extension of public services such as social assistance, social welfare, medical and health care, family planning, social security, science and technology education, culture and sports, labor security and legal services to rural areas, and promote the extension of government public services to rural areas. Actively provide farmers with public services such as medical and health care, employment guidance, culture and education, social security and social assistance, and "one-stop" services such as technical skills training and scientific and technological information consultation. At the same time, starting from solving the hot issues that farmers care about, relying on community service centers or service stations and taking volunteer service activities as the carrier, organize and mobilize villagers and all sectors of society to participate in rural community service activities. Qingdao actively promotes the service agency system for the people, and has established district (city) service agency centers, township service agencies and rural community service agencies. Yantai city implemented the "market project of thousands of villages and towns" and transformed and built standardized farmhouse service stores; Jining City pays attention to improving the volunteer organization system in rural communities, and relies on the rural community construction working committee to establish and improve social mutual aid associations, elderly associations, military support associations, red and white councils, civil dispute mediation associations, public security patrol associations, family planning associations, cultural and entertainment associations, and residents' reading associations, so as to give full play to the functions of self-management, self-education and self-service in rural communities. A pattern of orderly development of government public services, market-oriented services and villagers' mutual assistance and self-help has initially taken shape.
development prospect
Strengthen basic work
Build a public service information platform, carry out pilot work in rural communities, explore and solve the problems of places, personnel and funds for office and service in rural communities, realize the goal of having people, places and money in rural communities, build a service platform for government departments and all sectors of society, and create conditions for the extension of government public services to rural communities.
Strengthen the construction of service system.
Promote the coverage of public services in rural communities. Rural community construction has highlighted the service function, and established and improved the rural community service system from the actual needs of farmers. We have expanded service items, improved service means, opened service windows and implemented "one-stop" service. Provide farmers with public services such as medical and health care, social assistance and technical information. It has promoted the implementation of policies of providing for the aged, helping the disabled, being widowed, treating diseases and helping the poor.
Strengthened the construction of democratic politics
Guaranteed the democratic rights of farmers. Promoting the construction of rural communities, relying on community party organizations and villagers' committees, has further deepened and improved the villagers' self-government mechanism, ensured farmers' orderly participation in grassroots democratic political construction, promoted the implementation of democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision policies, and improved the management level of village-level organizations.
Promoted the development of rural economy.
Accelerated the process of urban-rural integration. Promoting the construction of rural communities has promoted the extension of infrastructure construction to rural areas, the pouring of public finance into rural areas, the coverage of public services, the popularization of science and technology to rural areas, and the radiation of modern civilization to rural areas, which has improved the quality of life and civilization of farmers. It has mobilized the enthusiasm and initiative of farmers in building a new socialist countryside, promoted the overall progress of rural economic development and social undertakings, and realized the coordinated development of urban and rural society.