Empowering Through Participation: How Effective Participation Influences Farmers’ Rights and Interests in withdrawal from rural homesteads of China

Empowering Through Participation: How Effective Participation Influences Farmers’ Rights and Interests in withdrawal from rural homesteads of China | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Empowering Through Participation: How Effective Participation Influences Farmers’ Rights and Interests in withdrawal from rural homesteads of China Linyi Tan, Peng Tang, Yixuan Xiong, Min Li This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8862018/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Despite withdrawal from rural homesteads (WRH) focus on farmers’ rights and interests, a gap between policy commitments and implementation persists due to ineffective participation. Furthermore, existing literature has yet to effectively unpack the “black box” of how participation translates into the protection of farmers’ rights and interests. To address this, this study constructs an integrative analytical framework of effective participation influencing farmers’ rights and interests. Farmers’ rights and interests are operationalized into three dimensions (living, economic, and social). Also, the framework innovatively incorporates participation awareness as a core element of effective participation. The proposed framework is empirically examined using micro-level survey data from Sichuan Province. The results show that: (1) Farmers’ effective participation is an important factor in protecting their rights in the WRH. (2) Farmers’ effective participation significantly prioritizes living right, followed by economic right, with minimal effect on social right in the process of WRH. (3) Participation awareness has the greatest influence among all elements, acting as the primary starting point for improvement of rights and interests. Participation outcomes, participation ability, and participation support follow in importance. (4) Effective participation may also widen disparities, as its positive impact increases with higher levels of these rights and interests. These findings indicate that improving the mechanism of farmers’ participation, enhancing their participation ability, and motivating them to participate can protect farmers’ rights and interests. Also, local governments should focus on the disparity of rights and interests with targeted measures to address them. Social science/Development studies Social science/Social policy Social science/Sociology Public participation Farmers’ Rights Protection Rural governance Rural revitalization Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Supplementarymaterialsv2.docx Analysisresources.zip Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 21 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 08 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 01 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 29 Mar, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 28 Mar, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 28 Mar, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 27 Mar, 2026 Editor invited by journal 11 Mar, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 02 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 02 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8862018","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":615912479,"identity":"7d508fd8-ea88-488b-b460-edffa52db83f","order_by":0,"name":"Linyi Tan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Sichuan University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Linyi","middleName":"","lastName":"Tan","suffix":""},{"id":615912480,"identity":"b81b3bc0-9f53-4566-8e0b-874451ac3c6b","order_by":1,"name":"Peng 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Furthermore, existing literature has yet to effectively unpack the \u0026ldquo;black box\u0026rdquo; of how participation translates into the protection of farmers\u0026rsquo; rights and interests. To address this, this study constructs an integrative analytical framework of effective participation influencing farmers\u0026rsquo; rights and interests. Farmers\u0026rsquo; rights and interests are operationalized into three dimensions (living, economic, and social). Also, the framework innovatively incorporates participation awareness as a core element of effective participation. The proposed framework is empirically examined using micro-level survey data from Sichuan Province. The results show that: (1) Farmers\u0026rsquo; effective participation is an important factor in protecting their rights in the WRH. (2) Farmers\u0026rsquo; effective participation significantly prioritizes living right, followed by economic right, with minimal effect on social right in the process of WRH. (3) Participation awareness has the greatest influence among all elements, acting as the primary starting point for improvement of rights and interests. Participation outcomes, participation ability, and participation support follow in importance. (4) Effective participation may also widen disparities, as its positive impact increases with higher levels of these rights and interests. These findings indicate that improving the mechanism of farmers\u0026rsquo; participation, enhancing their participation ability, and motivating them to participate can protect farmers\u0026rsquo; rights and interests. 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