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Digital rural governance is a micro-level governance practice within the broader framework of building a Digital China.It involves the integration of digital technology into rural governance to drive the digital transformation of rural governance.In recognition of the varied development stages of digital rural governance, the concept of \"digital context\" provides an analytical lens for exploring the differences in practical models of digital rural governance.By examining the contextual characteristics and differential mechanisms of digital rural governance, this paper delves into its social foundation and technological adaptation.The research finds that the context of digital rural governance primarily encompasses three dimensions: contextual foundation, contextual logic, and contextual optimization.First, the contextual foundation of digital rural governance manifests as the social basis, comprising the social structure of villages, the type of village development, and the age structure of villagers, which constitute the social stratification forms underlying digital rural governance.Second, the contextual logic of digital rural governance focuses on the adaptation of digital technology to rural governance, promoting the adaptation of digital technology to the rural governance foundation, village governance scenarios, and villagers' digital capabilities.Third, the contextual optimization of digital rural governance emphasizes integrating digital technology with both administrative and livelihood-oriented governance affairs at the village level.This approach leverages the governance value and functional potential of digital technology to streamline digital governance processes and enhance digital governance capabilities.As a developmental direction for the transformation of rural governance, digital rural governance must not only highlight the governance advantages of digital technology but also prioritize the inherent context of rural governance.It aims to enhance the effectiveness of rural governance through digital technology and advance high-quality digital village development tailored to local conditions.

The rural revitalization strategy represents a quantum leap in both the theory and practice of rural development in China, and serves as a crucial solution to address the array of challenges facing rural areas. Multi-dimensionally, the rural revitalization strategy sets out the general requirements of “building rural areas with thriving businesses, pleasant living environments, good social civility, effective governance, and prosperity,” which echo the measures of new urbanization: efficient, green, humanistic, well-governed, and inclusive. Specifically, “building rural areas with prosperity” aligns with the development requirement of urban-rural dual structure theory; “building rural areas with thriving businesses” meets the development requirement of the industrial division of labor and integration theory; “building rural areas with pleasant living environments and good social civility” follows the development requirement of sustainable development theory; and “building rural areas with effective governance” tallies with the development requirement of rural governance theory. Urbanization theory, urban-rural dual structure theory, the industrial division of labor and integration theory, sustainable development theory, and rural governance theory serve as crucial theoretical references for the rural revitalization strategy, helping make clear its conceptual underpinnings.

[Purpose/Significance] The advent of the digital era has presented China with significant opportunities to modernize rural governance. Digital literacy is crucial for enabling farmers to participate in rural governance and promote the development of digital villages. Rural residents are direct participants in digital village development, and their digital competence fundamentally determines the modernization level of rural governance. Their proficiency in digital skills affects not only the effectiveness of intelligent rural management, but also serves as a key indicator for measuring the progress of digital rural development. [Method/Process] Based on a literature review and sociopolitical reports, this study combines research objectives and thematic focus to create a questionnaire that investigates farmers' digital competence and rural governance performance. A stratified sampling strategy was implemented to select 306 rural households from diversified villages across township and sub-district jurisdictions, in Xia County, Shanxi Province, for the case study. The dataset encompasses respondents' demographic attributes, familial characteristics, digital proficiency metrics, and multidimensional indicators of rural governance efficiency and capacity building. Through integrated application of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multivariate linear regression modeling, this investigation systematically examines the determinants through which digital literacy influences governance outcomes. Together, these approaches establish a theoretical framework and evidence-based pathways for enhancing rural digital transformation initiatives. [Results/Conclusions] The empirical analysis results indicate that farmers' digital literacy significantly impacts rural governance efficacy. Specifically, improvements in the four dimensions of digital literacy - digital awareness, digital skills, digital application, and digital security - positively influence the efficacy of rural governance.In other words, the higher the digital literacy level of farmers, the greater the enhancement in rural governance efficacy. Among these, digital security literacy has the most significant effect on improving governance efficacy. Next is digital application literacy, followed by digital awareness literacy. Digital skill literacy exhibits a relatively weaker impact. Given the significant positive influence of digital literacy on rural governance efficacy, this paper proposes recommendations from three perspectives: strengthening farmers' proactive awareness of digital literacy, enhancing their knowledge in digital literacy, and improving the digital infrastructure construction in rural areas. These suggestions provide practical references for the digital development of rural governance in Xia County, Shanxi Province. Due to various constraints, however, the study only examined Xia County in Shanxi Province as the research area, resulting in notable geographical limitations in the sample. This is because rural regions in different areas exhibit significant disparities in economic development levels, cultural traditions, and policy support, all of which may affect farmers' digital literacy and the efficacy of rural governance. Consequently, the conclusions of this study may not accurately reflect the actual conditions in rural areas across diverse regions. To improve the generalizability of the findings, future research should expand the sample selection to include more representative areas.

IntroductionSustainability transitions in agri-food systems increasingly depend on territorially embedded governance models capable of integrating environmental performance, social inclusion, and institutional capacity. Proximity (Km0) food systems have emerged across Europe as strategic mechanisms to enhance resilience, reduce environmental externalities, and strengthen rural economies. However, existing research often treats sustainability, gender equality, and institutional governance as separate dimensions, limiting understanding of their systemic interaction within localized food networks.MethodsThis study develops an integrated analytical framework to examine how sustainability practices, gender inclusiveness, and institutional readiness interact across proximity agri-food systems. Three composite indices were constructed—the Sustainability Commitment Index (SCI), Gender Inclusiveness Index (GII), and Institutional Readiness Index (IRI)—using factor-weighted variables and normalized scales. Comparative statistical analysis, correlation modeling, and qualitative triangulation were employed to identify structural relationships among the three dimensions.ResultsA strong positive correlation between institutional readiness and sustainability outcomes suggests that governance capacity and infrastructural support are strongly associated with the adoption of sustainability-oriented practices within proximity food systems. Gender inclusion fosters innovation, resilience, and legitimacy in regional food systems. Businesses lead the way in sustainability; farmers demonstrate a commitment to policy but face limited access; and governments exhibit strategic awareness but implementation remains inconsistent. The systemic nexus of sustainability, inclusion, and governance shapes local networks.DiscussionThe findings support theories of polycentric and territory-based governance: transitions toward sustainability in local food systems depend on institutional coordination, inclusive participation, and access to innovation infrastructure. Gender equality is presented as a structural component of territorial sustainability and innovation. Persistent barriers related to administrative complexity, the digital divide, and the uneven implementation of policies in rural areas are highlighted.ConclusionThis study proposes a transferable analytical model for evaluating transitions toward sustainability embedded in local agri-food systems, offering evidence-based insights for territorial governance and rural policy design. It examines the interplay between sustainability performance, gender inclusion, and institutional readiness, contributing to research on transitions toward sustainability. Strengthening institutional capacity, integrating gender inclusion, and promoting participatory governance emerge as key levers for a resilient and equitable transformation of the food system.

This study investigates how public value is constructed in rural governance through the interplay of digital civic embeddedness, moral legitimacy, procedural inclusion, and eco-cultural identity salience. Drawing on Public Value Theory (PVT), Social Identity Theory (SIT), and Digital Citizenship Theory (DCT), the study develops and empirically tests a structural model using survey data from 412 rural residents in Henan Province, China. Results from PLS-SEM analysis reveal that while digital civic embeddedness does not directly enhance perceived public value, it significantly influences it through procedural inclusion and identity salience. Moral legitimacy of local officials emerges as a key antecedent, positively affecting both mediators and public value perceptions. Furthermore, trust spillover to central government moderates these relationships, weakening the impact of procedural inclusion and strengthening the effect of identity salience. The findings contribute to theory by introducing a multi-level, psychologically grounded model of public value construction and by reframing digital citizenship as conditional on perceived fairness and cultural resonance. Practically, the study calls for identity-sensitive, ethically grounded, and procedurally inclusive governance strategies that go beyond digital access to cultivate trust and legitimacy in transforming rural contexts. Implications extend to digital policy design, leadership development, and symbolic co-production in public administration.

Rural governance is crucial for sustainable development but often faces challenges like limited resources, geographic isolation, and diverse stakeholder interests. This research addresses the gap in integrating collaborative governance frameworks within rural settings by applying Soft System Methodology (SSM) and Textual Network Analysis (TNA) to enhance governance strategies. Combining SSM, a methodology designed for complex problems, with TNA, the research identifies key factors such as inclusivity, communication, and capacity building as essential for effective stakeholder engagement in rural governance. This integrated approach ensures that governance strategies remain adaptable to evolving challenges. The findings demonstrate that applying SSM and collaborative governance frameworks improves rural governance practices by creating more participatory and responsive systems that better meet the needs of rural communities. This contribution provides a practical solution to enhancing governance in rural areas, leading to sustainable improvements.

With the development of the market economy, new farmers’ cooperative economic organisations have flourished, and with their organisational appeal, linkage of economic interests and attraction, they have brought together and driven a large number of farmers, accumulated rich social capital, become the emerging subjects of rural governance, and influenced and changed the existential ecology of rural governance. Based on the perspective of new farmers’ cooperative economic organisations, this paper provides a relatively comprehensive and systematic exploration of rural governance embedded in new farmers’ cooperative economic organisations with the help of coordination theory, institutional theory and the utility function in calculus theory. The specific operation, motivation, and guarantee mechanisms under the organization’s participation in rural governance are empirically examined. The mean value of the composite index of the level of rural governance under the participation of NPCE organisations is 0.633, with a coefficient of variation of 0.144. It is found that the participation of the new farmers’ cooperative economic organisations in rural governance is a stage-by-stage development trend. In the long run, rural governance will eventually shift to a pattern of multiple co-governance, led by the market, guided by the government, and directed by village organizations.

The aim of this article is to promote the development of rural finance and the further informatization of rural banks. Based on DL (deep learning) and artificial intelligence technology, data pre-processing and feature selection are conducted on the customer information of rural banks in a certain region, including the historical deposit and loan, transaction record, and credit information. Besides, four DL models are proposed with a precision of more than 87% by test to improve the simulation effect and explore the application of DL. The BLSTM-CNN (Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory-Convolutional Neural Network) model with a precision of 95.8%, which integrates RNN (Recurrent Neural Network) and CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) in parallel, solves the shortcomings of RNN and CNN separately. The research result can provide a more reasonable prediction model for rural banks, and ideas for the development of rural informatization and promoting rural governance.

Drawing on an ethnographic study in two counties in Hunan province, this article explores how political brokerage has contributed to political order in China by facilitating contentious and non-contentious bargaining between the government and ordinary people. To account for the changing role of village leaders in rural politics, the article develops a concept of dual brokerage. This concept not only recognizes formal and informal linkages between village leaders and the two principals – the government and the community of villagers – but also underscores the interactivity between the linkages. We contend that despite the tensions between village leaders’ roles as state agents and as village representatives, these two roles in the reform era tend to be mutually beneficial. Under such an institutional configuration, village leaders in China in the reform era have strong incentives to act as dual agents and can make policy implementation more flexible and the use of state force more moderate. A comparison between the trilateral interactions before and after the tax reform in 2005 confirms that whether village leaders can effectively act as dual agents has a significant impact on the quality of rural governance in China.

Post-apartheid governance reforms have sought to democratise rural governance through Section 151 subsection 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996), stating that all areas in the country must be governed by municipalities, including those under traditional leadership. Yet, traditional leadership continues to wield significant influence rooted in customary practices, kinship networks, land administration, and community legitimacy. The coexistence of traditional leadership and local government in rural areas has created overlapping mandates, blurred responsibilities, and power struggles over legitimacy. Post-apartheid reforms intensified tensions, particularly in land administration, as traditional leaders resist collaboration for fear of losing authority. This has led to fragmented governance, affecting service delivery, sustainable land allocation, and rural development. Collaborative Learning Theory was used to provide a theoretical guiding lens to the study. This paper aims to examine the dynamics between traditional leadership and local government in shaping rural governance, focusing on the contested politics of authority in South Africa, using a case of Motantanyane Village. Methodologically, the paper adopted a qualitative research approach, drawing on both primary and secondary sources of data. Primary qualitative data was collected through in-person interviews with six purposively sampled participants from Lepelle-Nkumpi Local Municipality. Secondary qualitative data was obtained from existing sources, including academic journal articles, books, government documents, and reports. Thematic analysis methodology was used to analyse qualitative data. The findings indicate that rural governance is shaped not only by legal frameworks but also by history, identity, and competing sources of legitimacy. These dynamics often emerge in disputes over land, resources, and state services, affecting local power relations and community cohesion. Tensions between traditional leadership and local government stem from unclear roles, overlapping responsibilities, and contestation over land administration. Therefore, understanding rural governance requires moving beyond simplistic tradition versus modernity to recognise its contested nature. Strong collaborative relationships are essential for sustainable rural development.