E-commerce and the transformation of the rural: The Taobao village phenomenon in Zhejiang Province, China

Abstract Drawing on original interview data from the Taobao village phenomenon in Zhejiang province, China, we examine the multifaceted nature of rural transformation wreaked by e-commerce disintermediation. We explore livelihood diversification, the de-linking of livelihoods from land, the de-localisation of livelihoods, cultural and social changes and the institutionalization of e-commerce as themes synthesized from the extant literature. We suggest the gradual sense of the material transformation of rural communities found in literature pertaining to the global south can be injected with a greater sense of the speed and immaterial nature of rural transformation and emergent hybridity emphasized in literature pertaining to the global north. In our conclusions we note how this reading of the literature and our findings lead on to important questions regarding the precise geography of the effects of e-commerce on large, complex urban systems.