Sofia Leoni is an architect and PhD candidate in Urban and Regional Development at Politecnico di Torino, Italy, where she has been part of the China Room research group since 2022. She holds both a Master of Architecture and a Bachelor of Architecture from Politecnico di Torino, as well as a Master of Architecture from Tsinghua University in Beijing. Her research interests focus on urban and rural restructuring processes in contexts of marginality and ecological transition, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of technological innovation, infrastructure, and socio-spatial transformations.
This essay examines ‘Taobao Villages’ as a lens through which to interrogate the new spatial and labour formations produced by the platformisation of rural China. Focusing on Junpucun in Guangdong Province, it argues that these villages exemplify a process of recursive ruralisation: the cyclical return of capital and technology to the countryside. The article positions the rural not as a peripheral residue of urban modernity, but as an active terrain where global capitalism is absorbed, reworked, negotiated, and contested.
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