Abstract:

The transformation of farmers into townspeople is the most profound aspect in the whole process of urbanization. With accelerated developments of urban and rural integration in large and medium cities of our country since the middle 1990s, there has emerged an appearance in some developed regions that the scenic urbanization is divorced from the farmers' citizenship, which makes the importance of the transformation more conspicuous. Actually, there exists a close relationship of mutual dependence between the transition of urban space structure and the transformation of farmers into townspeople. It is exactly the development of urban and rural integration that promotes the reconstruction of social space structure to change from a scattering pattern to a space system, catalyses the social space flow altering from regional solidification to space opening, and urges the government of social space from regional segmentation to linkage. These great changes show profoundly that the transformation of farmers' citizenship is not only a social progressive process of urban and rural integration, but also a space transitive process of urban formation.

Key words: farmer's citizenship, urban social space structure, urban and rural integration