*5.2. Different Hollow Village Governance Mode Applicable Conditions*

According to 'relocation and merger' and 'retention of the original site', which are two categories of hollow village governance based on the four types of suburban integration, relocation and merger, agglomeration promotion, and characteristic protection village classification and development, we selected Fangsi Town village (suburban integration type), Xingdian village (relocation and merger type), Zhengniu village (agglomeration promotion type) and Weizhuang village (characteristic protection type) as typical hollow village governance cases in plain agricultural areas, and explored the governance mechanisms of different modes on the basis of the actor–network theory. We found that, due to the different supply conditions and economic development needs of villages, there are differences in the spatial characteristics, driving mechanisms, development goals, and suitable locations of different governance categories and different development types of hollow villages under the same category, which have certain applicable conditions (Table 3).

**Table 3.** Applicable conditions of different hollow village governance modes.


Mode 1: Relocation and merger–urban–rural integration mode. Mode 2: Village integration–scale operation mode. Mode 3: Village intensive–idle land revitalization model. Mode 4: Original site optimization–sightseeing tourism development mode.

Specifically, in different types of modes, in terms of spatial characteristics, the 'relocation and merger' type of hollow village governance mode is usually intended to renovate several adjacent hollow villages; the key actors mobilize and recruit the villagers, and the villagers exit the homestead in an orderly way and move into the centralized resettlement area. Human actors reclaim the homestead and idle land in the village and adopt a variety of methods, such as land equity or farmland balance, to centralize the planning and utilization of reclaimed land, so as to achieve population and land centralization. However, the "retention of the original site" model in relation to hollow villages refers to managing the village on its original site. Through housing, environmental remediation, and other projects, the living environment of the village is improved. Relying on the natural endowment of the village, the idle land is revitalized and landscape resources are developed to realize the characteristic agricultural production or ecological sightseeing agriculture. In the driving mechanism, under the 'relocation and merger' type of hollow village governance mode, villagers are mainly guided by the policy; they are moved to the centralized resettlement area under the government policy, the land is transferred, and the former detainees and some migrant workers become employees of the enterprises and the social security and infrastructure construction rely on the government policy, which is the hollow village governance mode under the influence of foreign aid. However, under the 'retention of the original site' mode, the improvement of farmers' living standards is in great contrast with the current living conditions and living environment expectations, and the inherent willingness of farmers to renovate is strong, but it is difficult to rely solely on the strength of farmers themselves. Support from government policies and funds is needed to improve village conditions or develop village-specific resources, so 'address retention' is a 'village self-renewal' method driven by the internal core.

In the same category as the hollow village governance mode, other mode types are also different. In the governance model of "relocation and merger," the key actors of the relocation and merger–urban and rural integration model are the Fangsi Town government and the two committees of each village. Each village organizes housing and land, and the villagers move into the community, supporting a series of housing security policies, establishing industrial zones and commercial and trade logistics zones, providing jobs, and promoting suburban integration. Its goal is to achieve urban and rural spatial integration, social integration and economic integration, realize the construction of new urbanization, and promote the development of suburban integration. This is suitable for villages close to cities and less dependent on agricultural income. The key actor of the village integration–scale operation model is the Fangsi Town government. Xingdian village merges and integrates with the nearby villages, takes off homesteads, reclaims land, comprehensively renovates inefficient land use and idle land, and builds modern community industrial parks and ecological experience parks. Its goal is to achieve residential centralization and land centralization, realize scale operations, and promote agricultural production efficiency. It is suitable for villages far away from towns with a high village aggregation, high rate of idle land, and a chaotic layout of village construction and agricultural production. In the 'retention governance' mode, the key actors of the intensive and idle land revitalization mode in the village are the two 'village committees' of Zhengniu village. Through housing and environmental renovation projects, Zhengniu village withdraws from multiple homesteads, carries out land circulation and idle land revitalization, and develops characteristic agricultural planting. Its goal is to improve land-use efficiency, develop the collective economy and improve villagers' income. This is suitable for villages with good production and living functions and a high farmers' dependence on agricultural income. The governance mode can be replicated. The key actors of the site optimization–sightseeing tourism development model are the Yucheng City government and the Fangsi Town government. Relying on tourism resources endowment, Weizhuang simultaneously develops and protects, builds tourism villages, landscape construction, agritainment business management, and characteristic fruit tree planting. Its goal is to support agriculture through tourism, so as to attract the return of the village

population and foreign population, manifest ecological value, and build characteristic rural brands. It is suitable for villages with distinctive landscape tourism resources or rich historical and cultural resources.

#### *5.3. Insufficient Research and Prospects*

To study the governance mode of hollow villages from the perspective of the actor– network, the subject and the object are actors with the same status. They form a close interactive network and jointly deduce the governance mode of hollow villages. However, due to the limitation of research scale and information availability, this study only analyzes the governance mode of typical hollow villages in China's plain agricultural areas, and the understanding of the complex morphology of hollow villages needs to be deepened. Moreover, the governance mode of typical hollow villages may not be applicable to villages that are biased towards mountains or with complex topography and geology. In addition, in the context of rural revitalization, the governance of hollow villages should follow the path of development according to local conditions. Therefore, the governance mode of hollow villages such as Taobao Village, Logistics Village, and Industrial Village should be further studied.

In future research, we will describe the spatial pattern of rural hollowing according to the manifestations and types of hollow villages in different geographical environments, and systematically analyze the governance mode of typical hollow villages in the region from the perspective of regional differences, revealing the integrated operation mechanism of hollow village governance and rural revitalization, and forming "appearance–form– type–pattern–mode–mechanism", which is a complete research system of hollow village governance mechanism under the guidance of rural revitalization.

#### **6. Conclusions**

Based on differences in the natural environment, social and economic development, and village governance modes of administrative villages, this study selected four case villages in Yucheng City, Shandong Province, namely, Fangsijie village, Xingdian village, Zhengniu village, and Weizhuang village. Based on the actor–network theory, this study analyzes the operation process and effect of typical governance modes, compares different hollow village governance modes, reveals their mechanisms from the perspective of governance subject and governance object, and puts forward targeted suggestions for the problems existing in the process of hollow village governance from the perspective of governance subject and governance object. The main conclusions are as follows:

(1) In the case of the hollow village governance model, Fangsijie village adopts the relocation and merger–urban–rural integration mode with the hollow village governance group as the key actor, and the core is concentrated on relocation to urban communities to solve the matching problem of non-agricultural employment and living space of farmers, and to realize the urbanization of living and employment; Xingdian village takes the Fangsi Town government as the key actor of the village integration–scale operation mode and the core realization of large-scale management, centralized living, agricultural modernization and intensive land, and the centralized construction of a large-scale community agricultural park; Zhengniu village adopts the village intensive–idle land revitalization mode with the two committees of the village as the key actors, focusing on the intensive utilization of rural idle land and the development of the planting industry; Weizhuang village adopts the original site optimization–sightseeing tourism development mode with the Fangsi Town government as the key actor. The core aim is to use irrigation and transportation advantages to develop the planting industry, tap resource potential and landscape value and develop ecological tourism. Four cases of hollow village governance have achieved good results; the governance work carried out is orderly, but there are also some problems to be improved.

(2) The hollow village governance mode based on the actor–network theory includes five aspects: key actors, governance subject, governance object, transfer, and identity transformation. In essence, the process of hollow village governance can be regarded as an actor–network space, which is dominated by key actors and promoted by various networks. In the process of governance, the organization mode and action mechanism of the governance subject act on the governance object and the network of actors is dynamically adjusted, which is manifested as the influence of the entry, exit, and role change of heterogeneous actors on the network relationship; this leads to the transformation of rural production and living space and realizes the transformation from hollow village to solid village. At the same time, due to differences in natural resource endowment, development degree, and development goals, as well as the influencing factors and governance requirements of the formation process of hollow villages, there are differences in the governance mode and operation process of hollow villages with different governance types and different development types under the same category. Relocation and merger–urban–rural integration mode applies to suburban villages with low dependence on agricultural income; village integration–scale operation mode is applicable to villages far from town, high village aggregation, production, and living layout confusion; village intensive–idle land revitalization mode is suitable for villages with good production and living functions and high dependence on agricultural income; the original site optimization–sightseeing tourism development mode is suitable for the villages with excellent tourism resources and convenient transportation. Within the general scope of towns in plain agricultural areas of China, the natural and geographical conditions of the same type of villages are basically the same. The favorable conditions derived from urban and rural development in the process of urbanization provide the necessity and possibility for the governance of hollow villages. The morphological representation of the governance object of hollow villages provides the basis for their classified governance. The four governance models provide experience for the precise governance of similar hollow villages in plain agricultural areas of China and the governance mechanism of hollow villages revealed in this study can be used for reference. This provides practical governance ideas for policymakers and key actors when making governance decisions.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, Y.Q. and W.Z.; methodology, Y.Q. and L.Z.; formal analysis, W.Z. and L.Z; investigation, Y.Z., Z.X. and H.J.; resources, Z.X. and H.J.; writing—original draft preparation, W.Z. and Y.Z.; writing—review and editing, Y.Q. and W.Z.; visualization, W.Z. and Y.Z.; supervision, Y.Q., Y.Z. and H.J.; funding acquisition, Y.Q. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 42077434; the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 41771560; the Shandong Provincial Institutions of Higher Learning "Youth Innovation Team Development Plan" Project, grant number 2019RWG016 and the Outside Association Project of Shandong Provincial Land and Space Planning Institute.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable for studies not involving humans or animals.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable for studies not involving humans.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**

