Time,Action, Space

Postmetropolis deepens Edward Soja's engagement with the sociospatial dialectic, one of his major contributions to urban theory. It also represents an uncharacteristic foray into history. The objectives of my contribution are to probe his treatment of time and to extend his sociospatial dialectic into the realm of actor-network theory, thereby further situating the materiality of the city at the theoretical center of social thought.     

Post-Postmetropolis: Taking Stock of the Urban Condition

Sea changes generate tides of big ideas about cities. Postmodernity, like modernity before it, framed urban speculations spanning the gamut from liberation to purgatory and everything in between. And it is no accident that both focused the hopes and fears of the age on cities. For cities have long constituted the crucible of lived human experience vis-à-vis other humans, as well as the built and natural worlds. Taking stock involves a process of assessing what has come to pass, and what has not; in addition, it involves analyzing the topography of the present, always with an eye on that which is to come. This essay introduces the collection of articles published as a group in this symposium—and mark the first decade of the new millennium as well as the tenth anniversary of the publication of Edward Soja's Postmetropolis. At a decade's remove from both, how do urban geographers take stock of the urban condition?     

Post-Postmetropolis

This commentary reflects on the ways that the issues raised by Edward Soja in his book Postmetropolis (2000) resonate (or do not) today. It entails a re-examination of Soja's six discourses on the postmetropolis in light of the highly significant events of the past decade that have changed the ways we think about and analyze cities. It is suggested that the crises and instabilities of the 2000s have humbled analyses, bringing greater attention to the everyday; to different, often smaller scales of analysis; to ordinary cities; to provisional politics; and to the rootedness of the urban within the natural.     

晋陕蒙能源区城镇化过程及其对生态环境的影响

研究能源区城镇化过程及其生态环境影响,对于更好地认识能源富集地区发展有重要的现实意义。利用1992-2009 年的DMSP/OLS夜间灯光数据,建立晋陕蒙能源区城镇化形态的年尺度时间折线图,探究其空间过程与动态强度,并用与NPP价值量成正比关系的植被固碳释氧效应反映生态环境影响。结果表明,城镇化过程在空间上的总强度不断上升,但单位面积强度有所波动,其形态趋于边缘复杂化和布局分散化;大部分区域NPP价值量与城镇化强度均在增加,少数城镇化快速增长区域NPP价值量下降。说明城镇中心的植被固碳释氧效应虽因不透水面增大而有所降低,但城镇化进程并未降低区域整体的固碳释氧服务功能。能源区良好生态环境的客观需求和发展积累的大量资金可能有益于推动城镇化区域的生态建设。     

城市化速度曲线及其政策启示——对诺瑟姆曲线的讨论与发展

诺瑟姆提出的城市化S形曲线是城市地理学的经典理论成果,对它在中国的应用却存在曲解。根据诺瑟姆原文,不是所有国家的城市化水平都能达到100%,城市化水平在30%到70%之间也不是一直处于加速状态;进而推导出城市化速度变化的四阶段倒"U"形曲线:孕育阶段、加速阶段、减速阶段、趋零阶段。其政策含义和启示在于:城市化速度变化有其规律,不能拔苗助长;中国已经迈过城市化速度的拐点,加速城市化不应是长期的主旋律;城市化依然是主要发展方向和趋势;中国城市化理念与重点均需转型;城市化与包容性增长、城乡统筹和农民工市民化是"十二五"时期的主要任务。     

Fiscal decentralization,political centralization,and land urbanization in China

This study investigates the driving forces of land urbanization in China. Drawing upon insights from the institutional perspective, this study argues that fiscal decentralization tightens local budget constraints, stimulating local governments to urbanize land to relieve fiscal distress. Political centralization triggers interregional competition among government officials for better economic performance, inspiring local governments to employ land development to mobilize more capital investment for growth. Based on official land-use change data from 2002 to 2008 for prefectural cities, and the application of spatial econometric models, this study presents empirical evidence to support these theoretical arguments. Results imply that fiscal and political incentives derived from land development drive China’s land urbanization process. This study enriches the urbanization literature by providing an institutional understanding of rapid land urbanization in a transitional economy.     

西安市城市化与都市农业发展耦合关系研究

城市化以其强烈的市场效应与辐射功能带动了都市农业的发展,但同时又对都市农业的水土资源、生态环境造成负面影响;都市农业又通过其生产、社会及生态功能推动城市化发展。揭示两者之间的作用规律,对解决城市经济、社会和生态问题,快速推动都市农业发展,协调城乡关系具有重要意义。本文在构建城市化水平与都市农业发展水平测度指标体系的基础上,通过主成分分析法和相关分析法,探讨了城市化与都市农业发展之间的相互作用机制,并定量分析了两者之间的耦合关系。结果表明：① 近10 年,西安市城市化水平与都市农业发展水平都呈上升的趋势,且二者表现出显著的同步性;② 西安城市化水平和都市农业发展水平呈显著的正相关,相关系数达0.955;③ 西安城市现代化水平因子、城市生活质量水平因子和人口与经济结构因子是推动城市化的3 个主要因子,其中城市现代化水平因子是推动西安都市农业发展的主导因子。     

Created unequal: China's regional pay inequality and its relationship with mega-trend urbanization

The relationship between inequality and mega-trend urbanization in China is complicated. At least in the first two decades of economic reform, urbanization is one of primary drivers of rising inequality across the country. Using between-and within-group components of Theil's T-statistics measured across regions and sectors, this paper provides new estimates of the evolution of China's regional inequality during the reform period. We particularly analyze the associations between inequality and China's megacities-oriented urbanization strategy. We find that China's overall pay inequality started to rise rapidly in the early 1990s, that it peaked in 2008, with the between-provinces component peaking as early as 2002. Since 2008 overall pay inequality has decreased, with between-province and within inequality both showing steady declines. In these respects, the evolution of pay inequality in China mirrors the trajectory expected under the hypothesis of a Kuznets' curve.     

Four decades of urban sprawl and population growth in Teresina,Brazil

The expansion of medium-sized cities in Brazil has increased significantly since the 80–90's decades. In that period, most of the urbanization process was represented by the agglomeration of the population in the major metropolitan areas such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Nowadays, the rural-urban movement in Brazil is predominantly affecting cities with less than 1 million inhabitants, located particularly in the Center-West and in the Semiarid Northeast regions. The city of Teresina, the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Piauí, is one example that has shown an accelerated process of urban development. In this context, this paper seeks to discuss the urban sprawl of Teresina over the last four decades (1974–2014), associating its trends of urban expansion and population growth with their social and environmental implications. The results of our work indicate that urban sprawl in Teresina has been continuous over the years and getting faster in the 2010–2014 period. High demographic density areas are located mostly in peripheral zones, where the low-income population dominates. The population density varies across the city, and it is far from the standard proposed by the urban legislation. Thus, urbanization in Teresina is characterized by the sprawl of its municipal boundaries, intra-urban densification and verticalization, and an increase in population, especially in areas of low-income neighborhoods.     

中国城镇化发展的地理学贡献与责任使命

城镇化是中国全面建成小康社会和实现现代化的必由之路,中国城镇化不仅决定着中国的未来,而且决定着世界城镇化的进程。近35 a来中国地理学家对中国城镇化发展做出了重要贡献,主要表现在：首次提出了城镇化的概念,推动城镇化上升为国家战略;率先将Northam提出的城镇化发展三阶段论修正为四阶段论;提出了中国城镇化发展合理进程并被《国家新型城镇化规划》采用;研制了中国新型城镇化综合区划,构建了中国新型城镇化合理格局;率先研制了城镇化发展质量定量测度方法与系统,为提升城镇化发展质量提供了技术支撑;较早发布了《中国新型城镇化发展报告》,提出了新型城镇化发展的通用模式和差异模式;首次提出了城镇化与生态环境耦合圈理论与技术图谱。中国地理学家在城镇化这一多学科研究的重大领域中经常扮演着组织者角色,并担当重任,主要是：综合分析城镇化发展面临的问题及国际经验,探索城镇化发展的驱动机制与基本规律,辨析城镇化发展的空间格局和差异模式,揭示城镇化发展与资源环境的耦合关系,模拟预警城镇化发展的多种情景与风险,选择城镇化发展质量提升的可持续之路。今后一段时间内,创新国家新型城镇化高质量发展理论,优化“一带一路”背景下中国城镇化发展的空间格局,揭示中国城镇化与生态环境交互耦合机理及规律,研制中国城镇化发展的智能决策支持系统与引导政策,是中国城镇化发展的地理学使命。     

中国城市化发展质量的综合测度与提升路径

城市化质量是经济城市化质量、社会城市化质量和空间城市化质量的有机统一,城市化发展质量的提升是加快推进我国城市化进程健康发展的关键。本文借助象限图法,通过对城市化质量、速度与城市化水平互动协调关系的分析,从经济、社会、空间三方面提出了由三类指标、12项具体指标组成的城市化发展质量综合测度的三维指标球及判别标准值,引进阿特...     

URBAN‐SYSTEM EVOLUTION ON THE FRONTIER OF THE ECUADORIAN AMAZON

ABSTRACT. Like the North American frontier, Ecuador's Amazonian margin has advanced in periodic waves. But the impetus has been extremely varied, interlacing periods of socioeconomic crisis with times of prosperity. Recent events in eastern Ecuador confirm that urbanization is a fundamental component of frontier development in South America. The urbanization process is not a sign, however, of regional economic strength. Capital gains at the periphery are transferred to the nation's core region. Even the larger boom towns display little functional specialization; they are, instead, precariously dependent on employment in the public‐service sector. Nonetheless, urban centers in the Ecuadorian Amazon continue to grow and to drain surrounding rural areas of younger and more educated individuals.     

Interviewing Enjoyment,or the Limits of Discourse

This article addresses how psychoanalytic methodologies can be used to conduct and analyze semistructured interviews. Drawing on my work as a research assistant during the summer of 2006, I discuss the process of interviewing soccer fans who attended televised broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup soccer matches in cafés in Vancouver, British Columbia. The research examined the emotional geographies of nationalism and consumption using the Lacanian psychoanalytic concept of enjoyment. Reflecting on the intersubjective and embodied dimensions of the interview process, this article discusses the difficulties of capturing and conveying interviewees' enjoyment. Specifically, I explore how enjoyment, which is partially extradiscursive, disappears when articulated and represented through speech. I assert that psychoanalytic attempts to methodologically grasp enjoyment must be attentive to not only how subjects represent their enjoyment through discourse but also to their tears, ecstatic chanting, and celebration; that is, to the enactment of enjoyment itself.     

Urbanization of Capital or Capitalization on Urban Land? Land Development and Local Public Finance in Urbanizing China

This study examines the relationship between urban land development and municipal finance in a Chinese regional economy undergoing rapid urbanization. Drawing upon insights from the perspective of political economy, this study analyzes how municipalities in coastal Jiangsu Province have engaged in the land-dominated urbanization process, and the developmental landscape that has emerged from the new approach toward local public finance. Land development has not functioned simply as a passive outcome of urbanization, but has been actively pursued by local governments as a means of revenue generation to finance local economic growth. An inverse correlation is found between the growth of land conveyance income and the level of the regional economies in China's administrative hierarchy. We call for greater attention to be directed to the interrelationship between land development, local public finance, and urbanization in the ongoing transformation of the Chinese political economy.     

城市化水平增长曲线的类型、分段和研究方法

城市化水平增长曲线可以分为S形和J形2大类别,其变化特征、动力学背景及研究方法也不尽相同。城市化曲线研究可以分为唯象分析和唯理分析2大途径,唯理研究包括城一乡人口异速生长、城一乡人口替代以及城乡人口迁移和转换3种路径,目前这些方法主要用于S形曲线研究,对J形曲线的探索不够深入。S形曲线是一种奇对称曲线,其模型导数却是一...     

HUMANISTIC GEOGRAPHY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MARTIN BUBER'S PHILOSOPHY*

Humanistic geography represents a duality of reason and feeling, science and ethics. As a scientific approach, it is concerned with uncovering the truth regarding people's experiential relationship with place. It does not regard the phenomena under consideration as merely an object of research, rather it bears an ethical message of concern for those objects, be they human beings, nature or place. This study expands on the ethical dimension conveyed by humanistic geography via Buber's work, trying to show that his dialogical philosophy and humanism is a logical extension of this message. I seek to convey an action-oriented frame of reference for geographers that may lead to a shift from passive reflection about people and place, to an active role in making Buber's “perfect space’ possible.     

Will you escort your child to school? The effect of spatial and temporal constraints of parental employment

Children's independent mobility in many urban areas in the United States has been in decline. This implies that children's out-of-home travel involves the company of adults more often than before. This need requires parents to seek ways to balance work-family life. This study examines the factors that influence a parent-child joint trip to school in dual-earner households, with special consideration given to parental work arrangements and location, which act as intra-household temporal and spatial constraints. The study is carried out in the five-county Los Angeles region, drawing from household travel diaries from the 2001 Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Post Census Regional Household Travel Survey. The results show that parental employment, especially the mother's, is a very important factor influencing the probability of a joint trip to school. In terms of temporal constraints, longer working hours will reduce the likelihood that a child will be escorted by its parents. However, the option of flexible work hours offsets the negative effect of long working hours by offering a higher degree of scheduling flexibility. In terms of spatial constraints, the closer the mother's workplace is to the school, the more likely it is that the child will be escorted by the parents. This research provides important evidence that a child's joint trip is heavily influenced by the parents' work schedule and location. The findings shed light on how the provision of certain employment policies and programs may affect joint trips to school.     

快速城镇化背景下乡村居民生活圈的重组机制——以昆山群益社区为例

乡村居民生活圈伴随着中国快速城镇化不断发生重组,本文选择中国城镇化发展最快的昆山群益社区为案例,运用地理学空间分析方法与社会学半结构化访谈法,解构生活圈并分析其重组过程的内在机制。主要结论如下：① 将乡村居民生活圈解构为居住圈、就业圈和交际圈,三圈重组过程演绎出中国土地城镇化、人口城镇化与人的城镇化之间的调适关系及人的城镇化的滞后性。② 居民生活圈重组与血缘、地缘和业缘变化存在紧密关联,其中业缘是代际间生活圈重组差异的主要原因。③ 快速城镇化空间转型的巨大能量造成居住、就业和社会交往的空间差异性与代际不平衡性。通过对快速城镇化下乡村居民生活圈重组过程与机制研究,为中国推进以人为核心的新型城镇化提供了理论依据。