Staying with the trouble of rural revitalisation: Material agencies, more-than-human care, and planetary rural futures

This response engages Chen et al.'s (2026) intervention into our planetary rural geographies framework, which rethinks rural-urban relations through material and more-than-human agencies. We welcome their emphasis on infrastructure's role, particularly in China's rural construction movement. Extending this, we highlight how materials – chemicals, soils, atmospheric elements – shape uneven planetary transformations. Drawing from metabolic politics and critical agrarian studies, we trace how earthly substances entangle rural assemblages in toxicity, dispossession, and ecological crisis. While rural revitalisation proliferates globally, we caution against anthropocentric models that reproduce harm. Instead, we call for ethics of care rooted in human-nonhuman reciprocity, land stewardship, and intergenerational solidarity – advancing the planetary rural geographies agenda through attention to more-than-human entanglements and shared planetary responsibilities.