长江经济带研究综述与展望

本文系统梳理了长江经济带研究的现状、重点和存在的问题。与长江经济带的政策关注度和战略定位变化相对应，国内对长江经济带的研究经历了3个阶段。现有研究主要关注三大问题：长江经济带的区域地理特征、发展基础评估和发展谋略。在梳理已有研究的过程中，本文发现学者对经济带的概念缺乏清晰界定，对经济带至少存在两种不同理解--一种强调地域范围，另一种侧重于区域开发模式。这两种理解背后是实证逻辑与工程逻辑两套话语的对立。此外，现有研究对于协同发展的标准存在分歧，对经济带内创新的培育与扩散关注仍然有所不足。

A review and prospect on studies of Yangtze River Economic Belt

Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) has become a national strategy in contemporary China. This paper reviews the existing literature in China in terms of the history, key concepts and major themes in major studies on YREB. Generally, the studies on YREB had three stages: initiation stage (1980-2000), stagnation stage (2001-2009) and revival stage (since 2010). The geographical scope and strategic positioning of the YREB changed in different stages. Recently, the YREB mainly functions to expand domestic demand, promote opening-up and narrow the regional gaps. It is found in this paper that the concept of economic belt is not clearly defined and there are at least two different understandings of economic belt: one focus on the scope of region and the other emphasizes the mode and strategy of regional development. The deep reason of these two interpretations of the economic belt is the duality of paradigms in Chinese academic sphere. While some scholars follow the logics of engineering, some others incline to the discourse of positivistic science. The disconnect between the science and engineering of studies of YREB leads to weak scientific foundation of the engineering-prone research and impractical policy implications of science-prone studies. Three major topics have also been identified among existing studies: empirical studies of regional development of the YREB, evaluation of the conditions and existing problems for policy making, policy research aiming to make specific strategies for YREB. Based on a overview of studies in these three topics, this paper points out that not many studies have examined the criterion and indexes of synergistic development and the cultivation and diffusion of innovation in the YREB.