Evaluation of Coupling Coordination of Rural Economic and Social Resilience and Identification of Obstacle Factors: A Case Study of Jinchang City, China

Rural resilience, a core capability for addressing systemic risks and enabling sustainable development, is increasingly vital to promoting urban-rural integrated development and rural revitalization strategies. However, current research lacks exploration of the collaborative mechanisms between rural economic resilience (RER) and rural social resilience (RSR) in ecologically vulnerable areas. Based on the practical context of rural sustainable development in such regions, this study investigates the interaction between RER and RSR from a resilience coordination perspective. In this paper, a rural resilience evaluation framework for collaborative development of economic and social resilience was established. By employing the coupling coordination degree model, obstacle degree model, and equilibrium entropy model, this paper examines the synergies, constraints, and potential of rural resilience subsystems in Jinchang City, Gansu Province, China, in 2020. The results reveal that: 1) RER contributes to RSR by stabilizing the economy, enhancing community adaptability, and driving modernization. In turn, RSR strengthens RER by mitigating instability, building social capital, and fostering confidence—together forming a mutually reinforcing coupling mechanism. 2) The rural economic and social resilience level in Jinchang City remains generally low with spatially clustered patterns, while the coupling coordination degree is at an intermediate level overall, with 62.59% of villages exhibiting unbalanced development between rural economic and social resilience. 3) RER and RSR demonstrate synergistic degradation in ecologically vulnerable areas, where low-level rural economic and social resilience induce integrated systemic deterioration. 4) Considering the unbalanced development of rural economic and social resilience in ecologically fragile areas, differentiated coordination pathways are proposed for three village typologies: RER-lagging villages, RSR-lagging villages, and villages where RER and RSR develop synchronously but lack effective coordination. These findings offer spatial governance strategies and practical guidance for enhancing rural resilience and advancing sustainable development in ecologically vulnerable regions.