Cultivating Farm Spaces: Pro-Rural Migrants and the Spatial Negotiation of Rural Belonging

This study examines how pro-rural migrants in China reshape rural spaces by establishing ecological farms and their interactions with local villagers. We conceptualize farm spaces as socially constructed sites where differentiated spatial practices mediate rural integration and exclusion. Based on fieldwork in peri-urban Nanjing, we identified three types of farm spaces—exurban, ideal rural, and cosmopolitan—each generating distinct patterns of migrant–local relations. This study highlights how ecological farms operate both as economic ventures and as arenas of spatial negotiation, where power, class, and rural imaginaries are contested. By analyzing everyday interactions across social and spatial boundaries, this study contributes to the understanding of pro-rural migration amid counter-urbanization, critical debates on the rural incorporation of migrants in the era of increasing mobility, and spatial justice in contemporary China.