Understanding the cultural potential of rural history: A conceptual framework of cultural capital development

Abstract

As the process of globalisation accelerates, cultural diversity is receiving unprecedented attention. As the international community continues to explore sustainable development models for traditional communities, the value of culture in shaping local identities, transforming resource values and enhancing economic competitiveness has become increasingly important. Peasant Life in China: A Field Study of Country Life in the Yangtze Valley opens a window for the international community to understand the Chinese countryside, and the history and cultural resources of the classic case study of Kaixingong Village in the new era. In the context of the new era, the cultural resources of Kaixiangong Village have undoubtedly become an excellent example for exploring the transformation mechanism and sustainable development path of rural cultural resources. Borrowing Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, the study chooses a village in Suzhou, China Kaixingong Village, and explores the ways and mechanisms of transforming rural cultural resources into cultural capital through field surveys, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The study finds that: 1) The transformation of cultural resources involves the synergy of the government special team, the village committee and the enterprise group. The rural governance structure under the scale reorganisation promotes the development of rural regionalisation and the overall planning of cultural resources. 2) The village committee plays the role of coordinating all parties in the process of transforming cultural resources, making use of the social base of rural acquaintances, storing villagers’ unused houses, and overlaying the policy benefits to guarantee the group’s market operation in the countryside. 3) The group and the village enterprise, as the terminal of transforming cultural resources, maximise the economic value of cultural resources through rural operation. Maximise the economic and social benefits of cultural resources, transform them into value-added cultural capital, and give them capital attributes. At the same time, the passive impact on villagers during the transformation of cultural resources requires the establishment of an effective communication mechanism in the subsequent development of the village to ensure the sharing of benefits and sustainability. The study aims to accurately analyse the capitalization mechanism of rural cultural resources, deeply explore the positive role of rural historical and cultural potentials in contemporary socio-economic development, further expand the application dimension and feasible path of cultural capital in rural revitalization practice, and contribute innovative and referential Chinese wisdom and solutions to the effective development and utilization of global rural cultural resources.