Zhu Xinkai, executive vice-president of Renmin University of China (RUC), introduced Sannongology to an international academic audience for the first time at the 18th Chinese Economic Association (Europe) and the 37th Chinese Economic Association (UK) Annual Conference, held at University College Dublin on Aug 3. Sannongology is an original theoretical framework developed to understand agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the context of China's modernization.

Delivering a keynote speech titled "Sannongology: A Framework for Rethinking Social Change and the State in Rural China," Zhu systematically outlined the framework's intellectual foundations, analytical scope and key concerns.

Sannong is a term often used in China today to collectively refer to agriculture, farmers and rural areas. Drawing on Marxist philosophy and political economy, China’s agricultural tradition and modernization experience, while engaging with international scholarship, Sannongology examines how these three interconnected dimensions evolve through modernization and how the state responds to the economic, social and institutional changes involved. It seeks to reveal the underlying logic of agricultural and rural transformation and to clarify the changing relationships among agriculture, rural communities, farmers and the state.

The framework forms part of RUC's broader effort to develop agricultural and rural studies rooted in China's own experience while contributing new perspectives to international scholarship on modernization and rural transformation.

Zhu noted that many of the issues addressed by Sannongology also intersect with major global challenges. He expressed RUC's interest in deepening cooperation with universities and research institutions worldwide in areas including agriculture and climate change, digital and smart agriculture, sustainable food systems and food security. He also highlighted the importance of stronger academic exchange and joint research in addressing shared challenges in global food and agricultural governance, and of bringing China's experience of agricultural and rural development into wider international dialogue.

During the conference, the RUC delegation hosted a special seminar titled "China's Rural Development through the Lens of Sannongology.” Participants discussed the conceptual foundations of Sannongology, its relevance to international research on rural development and modernization, approaches to advancing international academic dialogue around the framework, and its potential contribution to global food and agricultural governance.

In recent years, RUC has expanded research associated with Sannongology, fostering a distinctive Chinese school of Sannong studies across areas including rural development and governance, agricultural institutions and policy, poverty reduction and food security, as well as ecological and smart agriculture. The university has also explored interdisciplinary research linking emerging technologies, including low-altitude intelligent technologies, with agricultural development, and has published Chinese and English editions of China Communications (Sannong) to promote research and academic exchange on China's rural transformation.

In April, RUC formally unveiled Sannongology in Xiaogang village, Fengyang county, Anhui province, widely known as the birthplace of China's rural reform. The presentation in Dublin marked a further step in bringing the framework into international academic discussion and fostering dialogue between China-based rural studies and broader global research on agriculture, modernization and development.