Reconfiguration of rural social-spatial network by mobile social platform and its impact on apple farmer livelihoods: a case study of Li County, China

Abstract

Abstract Digital transformation is profoundly reshaping rural socio-economic landscapes and livelihood trajectories worldwide. However, the spatially differentiated mechanisms through which specific mobile social platforms reconfigure farmers’ social-spatial networks and the consequent heterogeneous livelihood outcomes remain insufficiently theorized and empirically underexplored within an integrated analytical framework. This study examines how WeChat restructures social and spatial networks among apple farmers and its differentiated impact on household income. Drawing on primary survey data from apple farmers in Li County, a major apple-producing region in northwestern China, we develop and operationalize a "WeChat mediation–network reconfiguration–livelihood outcome” framework through a mixed-methods approach that integrates spatial network analysis, social network analysis, and two-stage least squares. The findings reveal that WeChat-mediated sales networks exhibit fundamentally distinct spatial topological structures and spatial morphologies compared with conventional marketing channels. Apple farmers’ commercial linkages span vast geographical distances, predominantly interfacing with major consumer markets in eastern China, thereby bypassing the hierarchical constraints imposed by conventional wholesale intermediaries. The structural characteristics of social networks and their geographical configurations vary systematically across farmers’ livelihood strategies and geographical locations. Two-stage least squares estimation confirms that WeChat-based sales exhibit a statistically significant and economically substantive positive association with apple farmers’ income. This effect exhibits pronounced heterogeneity that the magnitude and underlying mechanisms of income gains differ across livelihood types and geographical contexts, and are mediated and moderated by the composition and spatial reach of farmers’ social-spatial networks, as well as by the socioeconomic attributes of network contacts, particularly their educational attainment and occupational status. By integrating social network and spatial network perspectives, this study advances the theoretical understanding of digital rural development and provides targeted empirical evidence to inform digital rural revitalization and agricultural income enhancement in China and beyond.