Housing-employment coordinated development and rural revitalization path at the county level in Chongqing Municipality: From the conjugate perspective

Abstract

Coordination of rural housing and employment is the key to promoting common prosperity and implementing the rural revitalization strategy. Based on the cross-section data of Chongqing Municipality in 2007, 2014, and 2020 and from the perspective of conjugation, this study constructed an evaluation indicator system and evaluation model for the coordinated development of rural housing and employment at the county level, revealed its spatiotemporal differentiation characteristics, and classified the types of housing-employment coordinated development and proposed differentiated rural revitalization paths. The results show that: 1) There were significant spatial and temporal differences in the degree of rural housing-employment coordination in Chongqing Municipality, which generally showed a positive development trend both in terms of quantity and quality and a spatial pattern of high in the central area and low in the surroundings; The balance index of rural housing-employment generally showed an upward trend and a spatial pattern of local prominence and high in the south and low in the north. The efficiency index of rural housing-employment showed a steady upward trend and its spatial distribution pattern changed from clustered to high in the west and low in the east. 2) The coordination of rural housing-employment at the county level can be divided into six types, including high coordination type, medium coordination type, balanced medium type, balanced medium-low efficiency type, strong employment medium-low efficiency type, and strong housing medium-low efficiency type. The high coordination type was mainly distributed in the core area of the main metropolitan area. The medium-low imbalance type was mainly concentrated in the periphery of the main metropolitan area and the northeastern area of the municipality. The severe imbalance type was mainly concentrated in the key districts and counties that received assistance from the rural revitalization program. 3) There was a higher degree of coordination in the economically more developed counties in the main metropolitan area, and these counties can attract their rural population to live and work there. After the implementation of the targeted poverty alleviation program and the rural revitalization strategy, the rural housing-employment coordination in the economically less developed northeast and southeast areas of Chongqing showed a faster improvement trend compared with the main metropolitan area. The backflow of rural population has occurred. Finally, based on the types and spatial distribution characteristics of rural housing-employment coordination, the article put forward a differentiated path for rural revitalization.