Abstract: Family farm, as a new mode of agricultural operation, is a very effective measure to solve the current situation of empty villages, multiple job-holding farmers and aging farmers, and it is also an important way to crack the problems of“who to do farm work”and “how to do farm work”. According to the structuration theory in sociology, this paper constructs the family farm structure jointly participated by the various behavioral subjects, including the local governments, the village collectives, the farmers, and the land outflow households. In order to realize their interest targets, the family farm operators would interact with the structure, under the constraints of space, time, economy and risks, giving full play to their initiative to break through the restrictions of the structure and to promote the further optimization of the structure. During the process of interaction with the structure and optimization, new resources and rules will be generated, and new family farm structure will be formed, so as to realize benefits maximization.

Key words: family farm; structuration theory; external structure