Research and Prospect of Digital Empowerment in the Context of Rural Revitalization: CiteSpace-based Bibliometric Analysis

This article used CiteSpace, a visual analysis tool, to draw a knowledge map in the field of digitally empowered rural revitalization, and analyzed the current status, hotspots and thematic evolution of research in this field with the literature. The results showed that, (1) In terms of the number of publications: the appearance of works related to this field has only started since 2017, and the total number of articles had been steadily increasing in the first two years, and the total number of articles only increased significantly after the initial breakthrough in the construction of digital countryside in 2020. The issuing institutions were mainly universities and research institutes and there was less cooperation between institutions. The distribution of authors was scattered, and the cooperation was mainly sporadic. (2) Research hotspots: the research hotspots in the field of digitally empowered rural revitalization were identified according to keyword clustering: rural revitalization, digital countryside, common wealth, and digital divide. (3) Evolution of subject terms: the research trend in the field of digitally enabled rural revitalization was closely related to the development of digital technology, and the subject terms had evolved from the classic “three rural areas” to the emerging theme of rural revitalization with digital rural construction as the core, and the research hotspots had also evolved from exploring the theoretical logic of digital rural areas to focusing more on the practical applications. The focus of future rural revitalization gradually tilts toward digitalization, and research on how digitalization empowers the field of rural revitalization should be strengthened.