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Topic · General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Rural development and sustainability

Rural development and sustainability is a research topic within General Agricultural and Biological Sciences. Science Explorer counts 20k research works in it since 1950. 10.4% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the multifaceted aspects of rural development, agricultural change, and the evolving landscapes of rural areas. It delves into topics such as social innovation, neo-endogenous development, rural resilience, counterurbanization, gender identity in farming, multifunctional agriculture, rural gentrification, and community empowerment.

  • Rural Development
  • Agricultural Change
  • Social Innovation
  • Neo-Endogenous Development
  • Rural Resilience
  • Counterurbanization
  • Gender Identity
  • Multifunctional Agriculture
  • Rural Gentrification
  • Community Empowerment
Research works
20k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.4%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+16%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
32% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Rural development and sustainability

Which countries lead Rural development and sustainability research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (740 and 320 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 740 works
  2. 2 United States 320 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 286 works
  4. 4 Spain 207 works
  5. 5 Australia 176 works
  6. 6 Italy 148 works
  7. 7 Germany 127 works
  8. 8 Canada 110 works
  9. 9 France 102 works
  10. 10 Japan 97 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 32.0%United States: 13.8%United Kingdom: 12.3%Spain: 9.0%6 others listed: 32.9%32%largest
China740 · 32.0%United States320 · 13.8%United Kingdom286 · 12.3%Spain207 · 9.0%6 others listed760 · 32.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Rural development and sustainability research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Rural development and sustainability research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and University of Guelph.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 37 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 27 works
  3. 3 University of GuelphCanada 19 works
  4. 4 James Hutton InstituteUnited Kingdom 18 works
  5. 5 Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'EnvironnementFrance 16 works
  6. 6 Newcastle UniversityUnited Kingdom 15 works
  7. 7 Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaSpain 15 works
  8. 8 The University of MelbourneAustralia 14 works
  9. 9 Polish Academy of SciencesPoland 14 works
  10. 10 Aalborg UniversityDenmark 14 works

Who are the leading researchers in Rural development and sustainability?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Rural development and sustainability include Ronald C. Kessler.

  1. 1 Ronald C. Kessler United States 360k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Rural development and sustainability?

The most cited paper in Rural development and sustainability is "Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things" (Mark Jackson, 2010), with 4,757 citations. Next come "WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE IN REGIONAL SCIENCE?" (3,417) and "The origins and practice of participatory rural appraisal" (2,523).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things Mark Jackson · Emotion, space and society 20 Nov 2010 4,757
2 WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE IN REGIONAL SCIENCE? Torsten Hägerstraand · Papers of the Regional Science Association Open access 1970 3,417
3 The origins and practice of participatory rural appraisal Robert Chambers · World Development Open access Jul 1994 2,523
4 Situating knowledges: positionality, reflexivities and other tactics Gillian Rose · Progress in Human Geography Jun 1997 2,387
5 Scale and Cross-Scale Dynamics: Governance and Information in a Multilevel World David W. Cash, William Neil Adger, Fikret Berkes et al. · Ecology and Society Open access 2006 2,252
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Rural development and sustainability research done?

The largest centres of Rural development and sustainability research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Melbourne (Australia) and Wuhan (China).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 152 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 45 works
  3. 3 MelbourneAustralia 42 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 41 works
  5. 5 LondonUnited Kingdom 37 works
  6. 6 MadridSpain 35 works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 34 works
  8. 8 ShanghaiChina 32 works
  9. 9 WarsawPoland 31 works
  10. 10 TokyoJapan 31 works
See Rural development and sustainability on the map

Where is the best place to study Rural development and sustainability?

Among universities, judged by research, Beijing Normal University, Newcastle University and Wageningen University & Research score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 23.07%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →China University of …Beijing Normal Unive…Newcastle UniversityWageningen Universit…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Beijing Normal UniversityChina 68.930.0%5.0×12 +31.7%
2Newcastle UniversityUnited Kingdom 62.015.3%10.7×16 -7.0%
3Wageningen University & ResearchNetherlands 61.711.3%10.4×12 +47.2%
4China University of GeosciencesChina 61.137.0%5.8×8 +161.9%
5Sun Yat-sen UniversityChina 56.536.3%1.7×11 +115.6%
6University of GuelphCanada 56.41.9%22.0×19 +12.8%
7Sapienza University of RomeItaly 55.430.4%2.9×10 +346.4%
8China Agricultural UniversityChina 54.425.1%6.9×12 +94.9%
9Northwest Normal UniversityChina 52.524.2%16.2×12 +202.4%
10Peking UniversityChina 52.219.2%2.1×13 +170.4%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Rural development and sustainability, country by country

Is Rural development and sustainability research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 16% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Rural development and sustainability.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Rural development and sustainability as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.015% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Rural development and sustainability0.017% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Rural development and sustainability over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Rural development and sustainability10.3% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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