抄録
Rapid globalization, urbanization, and digital transformation are fundamentally reshaping rural systems, challenging conventional paradigms of rural geography and driving a transition toward integrated, process-oriented, and interdisciplinary research. This review synthesizes recent theoretical and methodological advances in rural geography, tracing the evolution from agricultural regional studies and political economy to social–ecological–technological system perspectives. It critically examines major research themes, including rural spatial restructuring, land-use transition, demographic change, rural governance, cultural landscape transformation, and urban–rural integration, while evaluating the growing role of geospatial technologies, big data, artificial intelligence, and digital twins in advancing multi-scale analysis and evidence-based decision-making. The review shows that contemporary rural geography is shifting from static spatial description toward dynamic analyses of coupled human–environment systems, emphasizing cross-scale interactions, place-based processes, and governance-oriented research. Despite substantial progress, major challenges remain, including limited theoretical integration across disciplines, insufficient understanding of micro-scale mechanisms, weak comparative analyses across regions, and inadequate translation of scientific knowledge into policy and practice. Future research should strengthen interdisciplinary theory development, multi-scale process modeling, intelligent spatial analytics, long-term monitoring, and adaptive governance to better address the complexity of rural transformation under global environmental and socioeconomic change. By integrating theoretical evolution, methodological innovation, and governance perspectives, this review provides a comprehensive framework for advancing next-generation rural geography research and identifies key priorities for supporting resilient and sustainable rural development.
