网络信息空间的地理学研究回顾与展望

网络信息空间（以下简称网络空间）的地理学是当前地理学研究的重点方向之一。1991年万维网诞生并向大众普及后网络空间开始得到广泛认可，同时其作为一种新的空间与事物也吸引了地理学界的高度关注。以多种期刊数据库和搜索引擎为检索源，考察国内外网络空间的地理学研究成果。依据研究内容将国外研究归纳为网络空间地理内涵、虚拟社区、虚拟化身与认知、网络空间的经济地理学，网络空间制图和互联网6个重点研究领域，将国内研究归纳为互联网的区域作用、网站和虚拟地理环境3个热点领域，并分别进行了梳理回顾。最后对国内外研究进行了简要评述，从网络空间的外部层面、内部层面和作用层面提出了若干研究议题。

The Geography of Cyberspace: Review and Prospect

The term ‘cyberspace’ is a recent creation and attributed to William Gibson, a science fiction writer who first used the word in his 1984 novel Neuromancer. Cyberspace began to be approved broadly after the world wide web came into being and was popularized to masses in 1991. After the same time, it took one kind of new space and thing which also attracted great attentions from the geographic education world. Especially the publication of ‘Toward geographies of cyberspace’ by Kitchin in 1998 played the guidance role. The geography of cyberspace has become one of the priority directions of current geography. This paper reveals the ways in which geographers have engaged with studies of cyberspace. Taking many kinds of journal databases and search engines as search source, we examine the research findings in geography of cyberspace. According to the study content，six main research areas of cyberspace in the word are summed up:(1)the importance of geography of cyberspace;(2) virtual community;(3)virtual avatar and perception;(4)economic geography of cyberspace; (5)mapping cyberspace;(6)Internet and information flows. And Internet and regional economy differences, website and virtual geographic environment are three hot spot fields of Chinese research. Then, these fields are overviewed. Finally, a brief commentary study is given to make a prospect of the geography of cyberspace, and three development topics in future from outer layer，inner layer and interacted layer are pointed out. An agenda for future geographical research is outlined and an approach of future study is put forward.WT5HZ]