可持续性转型研究动态与经济地理学展望

近年来,可持续性转型概念进入经济地理学者视野,用于探究区域绿色技术、消费市场和产业转型的多维因果过程与空间动力机制,已成为演化经济地理学和环境经济地理学新兴议题之一。为掌握该研究动态,本文对2000—2020年来共计2453篇可持续性转型文献进行回顾,重点探讨了转型地理研究进展和理论不足,阐述了经济地理学对可持续性转型研究的理论价值和融入方向。本文发现：① 可持续性转型是创新研究和可持续管理领域热门议题,呈多学科介入特点;其中,转型地理研究正不断崛起,并聚焦区域绿色新兴产业发展的社会-技术共演过程、多尺度动力机制、环境经济和社会效应及其转型地理性等问题。② 经济地理学对转型研究有三个视角优势：时空语境敏感性;转型过程、机制和结果的空间多样性;新产业系统的地方嵌入及其合法化的地理性。③ 经济地理学对可持续性转型研究含三个提升方向：概念内涵深化（含地方、尺度和空间）、多范式互动融合（演化、制度和政治经济地理）、分析框架构建方向（多地理尺度性与多层次视角,区域创新系统与技术创新系统）。④ 中国转型地理研究在三个议题上有广阔前景：基于国家语境敏感的地方转型探索、绿色利基发展与转型空间机制研究、以及区域新产业路径发展与转型研究。

A review on sustainability transitions and its research agendas in economic geography

In recent years, the concept of sustainability transitions and its related research have increasingly drawn attention from economic geographers. Sustainability transitions studies aim to investigate the multi-scalar causality of mechanisms and spatial dynamics on how regional green technologies, consuming markets and industrial transformations emerge and develop over time. This research strand has become one of the emerging topics in both evolutionary economic geography and environmental economic geography. To better capture the progress of sustainability transitions studies, this paper conducts a bibliometrics-based literature review based on 2453 articles in the field during the past two decades. Besides, through an in-depth critical review on geographies of transitions, this paper identifies several key theoretical problems and shortcomings in the geographies of transitions literature. It has addressed the theoretical merits and value of economic geography for improving sustainability transitions studies. The findings of the paper are: (1) As one of the most promising research themes in innovation studies, sustainability management and environment science, sustainability transition studies have been increasingly disciplinarily pluralistic. The economic geographical research on sustainability transitions, in particular, focuses on three key research topics, including the co-evolution mechanisms between technologies and societies in regional new green industrial path development, multi-scalar driving forces and agency-structure interactive mechanisms of sustainability transitions, the role of transitions in shaping environmental economic and socio-spatial impacts, and the varieties of transition mechanisms. (2) There are in general three perspective advantages of economic geography for transitions studies that can be identified, namely, spatio-temporal sensitivity, spatial varieties of transition mechanisms, processes and impacts/outcomes, and place embeddedness of new socio-technical regimes in industrial systems and its geographies of legitimation. (3) Three orientations for economic geography to enhancing transitions studies are identified: deepening of geographical concepts (including place, scale and space), interactions and integrations with different approaches in economic geography (namely, transitions with evolutionary, institutional, and geographical political economy), and construction avenues for comprehensive analytical frameworks (integration of geographically multi-scalar perspective with multi-level perspectives, and that of regional innovation systems perspective with the approach of technological innovation systems. (4) Three promising research agendas on geographies of transitions in China are proposed, namely, localized transitions research by incorporating the role of Chinese-specific national contexts, green niche development and spatial mechanisms of its transitions, and regional new industrial path development and its related transition studies.