The Formation Of The Primary Market And Rural Social Change,

Road-building as a project made to help to develop rural area is carried out by the Ministry of Communications. As a public product, a lot of roads have been built, especially in rural areas after the reform and the opening to the outside. In 1980, the total mileage of road is 880,000 kilometers, and in 2002, up to 1705,000 kilometers in China.In many rural areas, with the building of roads, local economy develops very fast. So there is a slogan in Chinese rural areas, that is " If you want to be rich, road must be built. A broad road makes great wealth, a narrow road makes a little wealth, and no road no wealth" . This role of a road in rural economic development makes some scholars believe that the building of road is the reason for social progress in Chinese rural areas.However, in some others rural areas, although roads have been built, there are no obvious changes in economy or society. This fact shows that roads do play a certain role in rural development, but other factors are also necessary. What is the real factor for social development in rural areas? How are they work and what are the effects? This paper is to explore the factor and to analyze the effects it causes.Road-building,primary market and social change are three key words in this paper. Contrast to other studies that consider the road-building is the reason for rural development, I believe there is a medium factor between the road-building and the rural development, that is, the primary market.The improvement of the conditions of communication gives impetus to the emerging of the primary market. With the convenient communication, if there are exchangeable resources in the rural areas, and the people there can exchange their goods according to their own habits, the primary market results. That is to say, this market is the real factor that the road-building contributes to the rural people's welfare through.With the developing of the primary market, social changes take place. The directive change is the economic change, which is basic to the changes in the structure of employment, lifestyle, social value system and the whole society. With developing of the market, many farmers are transformed into service workers or businessmen, which cause their lifestyle and value system changed. The principle of communication between peoples' relationship is also changed, which leads to changes taking place in gross-rooted organizations. That is to say, the whole local community life has been reintegrated now because of the emerging of the primary market.In a word, it is the primary market works between the road-building and economic development that cause the local community reunited according to people's rational calculation.This paper is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter is about the background about this topic. The method and focus are also defined in this chapter. The next six chapters describe the changes in a rural community and analyze the factors that cause them. Finally, the discuss is expanded to the whole Chinese rural development and some policies are evaluated.