SOVIET ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY: SIX DECADES OF DEVELOPMENT AND CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS

A senior Russian economic geographer reviews the peripatetic evolution of the discipline during the Soviet period. After an early phase in the 1920s and 1930s, when it made some practical contributions to economic planning, particularly in regionalization, economic geography was long relegated to the status of a teaching discipline separating it from the more goal-oriented economic sciences. In recent years, economic geography has again acquired greater practical relevance, largely because of the development, and official endorsement, of the theory and application of territorial-production complex theory as an approach to spatial organization of the Soviet economy. Its thematic content has been broadened by the inclusion of the increasingly active field of population geography and urban geography. The growing “social” content of the discipline has given rise to suggestions that it be renamed “social geography,” or at least “social-economic geography,” reflecting a similar change of designations of the Soviet economic plans to social-economic plans.     

THE GEOGRAPHY OF OCEANS AND ITS BASIC PROBLEMS

The study of oceans as a subfield of geography has gained acceptance in the Soviet Union. Some universities have introduced courses in marine geography, and geographers have participated in oceanographic research voyages. An effort is made here to define the place of a marine geography within the geographic discipline as a whole, to set the spatial limits for geographical investigations of the oceans and to suggest problem areas suitable for geographical analysis. In keeping with the Soviet dichotomy, physical and economic geographic problems are distinguished. Physical-geographic problem areas would include study of oceanic water masses; large-scale interaction between oceans and atmosphere; study of island environments, and the biogeography of oceans. Economic geographic problems would focus both on theoretical aspects, such as spatial regularities in human activities related to oceans, and on applied aspects, providing a sound basis for economic development of ocean areas.     

SOCIO-ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY IN THE WEST AT A TURNING POINT

The decade of the 1970s is viewed as a turning point in the development of socio-economic geography in the West. An increasingly sociological focus has been accompanied by strong criticism of the traditional foundations of human geography and economic geography. A radicalization of socio-economic geography has involved several contradictory trends and periods. A symptomatic and important aspect, from the Soviet point of view, has been increasing interest on the part of some Western scholars in Marxist theory and in the work done by Soviet geographers in socio-economic geography.     

SOVIET ASIAN-PACIFIC TRADE AND THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOVIET FAR EAST

During the 1970s and early 1980s it was generally accepted, by both Soviet and Western specialists, that in the Soviet Far East the expansion of exports to the nations of the Pacific Basin offered a solution to the region's economic problems. However, recent policy statements suggest the rejection of this export-led development strategy. This study examines the changing structure and dynamics of Soviet trade with the Asian-Pacific region. At present, for a combination of economic and political reasons, Soviet trade with the Asian-Pacific region is dominated by exports of machinery and equipment and petroleum to the socialist nations of the region, inasmuch as Japanese demand for Soviet natural resources is stagnant. Therefore, because of the resource orientation of the Far Eastern economy, contemporary trade relations do not favor the expansion of the Soviet Far Eastern export base. Consequently, the future role of the region in the national economic system will be determined largely by the availability of domestic capital investment funds.     

THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE 1989 ELECTIONS OF PEOPLE'S DEPUTIES OF THE USSR (PRELIMINARY RESULTS)

In the first Soviet paper written on electoral geography in the USSR, a team of scholars analyzes results of recent elections to the Congress of People's Deputies. An introductory section explains the rationale for greater attention to electoral geography and assesses Western research from a Soviet perspective. Interesting spatial insights (supplemented by maps) are offered on whether existing electoral districts provide equitable representation for the population, on voter turnout (including negative voting against “establishment” candidates), and the level of social-political activism. A concluding section surveys prospects for the further participation of geographers in the study of electoral processes (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

我国的区域经济地理研究与区域经济地理学

区域经济地理学在我国是一个受到特别重视的地理学的一个研究方向,文章讨论了西方和苏联地理学中区域经济地理学的发展情况,和在我国得到特别发展的条件,认为与中国的社会经济体制、改革开放以后地方经济的发展有特别的关系。文章对区域经济地理学学科的发展做了回顾,列举了这个学科在基础理论上的有代表性的成果,认为它已经形成了自己的理论体系,即包括劳动地域分工、经济地域运动和中国社会主义市场经济条件下经济区域化等。文章认为,我国丰富的区域经济生活实践将推动学科进一步发展,并提出了学科在跨学科方向上的发展趋势。     

INTEGRATION AND DIFFERENTIATION IN MODERN GEOGRAPHY

A leading physical geographer reviews recent efforts in the Soviet Union to foster integration among the physical and socioeconomic disciplines of geography. He identifies a number of barriers that stand in the way of integration: the ever increasing multiplicity of conceptual approaches and models in geography, runaway terminological innovation and confusion, the increasing tendency of socioeconomic geographers to give their particular disciplines a greater economic and sociological orientation, the lack of cohesion in efforts to work out general geographic concepts and theories, the absence of physical-geographic background in work on social and economic geography, the increasing trend toward differentiation in geography, the fact that there is actually very little joint work among physical and socioeconomic geographers. In Isachenko's view, geography in the Soviet Union remains inevitably a dualistic discipline, in which progress toward genuine integration would require, for example, genuine collaboration among geographers in the various subfields.     

SPATIAL PATTERNS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOVIET UNION

Analysis of spatial patterns of attained educational levels is helpful in understanding the cultural geography of an area, perhaps especially in the Soviet Union, with its many ethnic groups and stated aim of providing equality of education regardless of ethnicity or sex. The proportion of the population that had completed a higher education was mapped at oblast level from 1970 census data. High rates are found in certain urban areas, Estonia and Latvia, Georgia, and certain sparsely populated areas of the Far North, Siberia, and the Far East. There are regional patterns of disparity between male and female rates of completed higher education and between rural and urban rates, despite Soviet attempts to reduce these inequalities. The distribution of Soviet higher educational institutions conforms generally to the distribution of population, although access to higher education opportunities appears to be geographically limited in some regions. (Maps by Joann L. Krupa, George Mason University.)     

AN APPRAISAL OF THE SOVIET CONCEPT OF THE TERRITORIAL PRODUCTION COMPLEX

The paper, contributing to one of the research goals of the Commission on Industrial Systems, International Geographical Union, provides an appraisal of the Soviet approach to spatial organization of the economy known as the territorial production complex. The authors review the genesis of the concept, definitional criteria, and its practical formation and operation, making occasional comparison with Western approaches to spatial economic organization. An unresolved problem for Soviet planners is the provision of a coordinating administrative authority for each territorial complex that would integrate the activities of individual industrial ministries involved in the creation of the complex; the current thinking of Soviet planners is illuminated by a recent statement appended to the paper. (For a previous Western view of Soviet regional development models, see G. A. Huzinec in Soviet Geography, October 1976.)     

南京大学经济地理学发展历程与展望

南京大学是我国地理学研究的重要阵地,在经济地理学领域更是有着深远的影响。本文基于对地理学刊物上发表论文的统计,对南京大学经济地理学发展的历程进行了系统的研究。南京大学经济地理学发展主要分为快速发展期、波动停滞期、复苏繁荣期、蓬勃发展期等四个阶段。在研究内容上,主要涉及区域经济与区域发展、交通地理学、空间结构与空间布局、产业集群与新产业区、企业与区域增长、低碳经济与可持续发展、全球化的经济活动、技术进步与信息化、制度经济地理学等9个主要领域。这9大领域在国内学界有着重要的影响。最后,展望南京大学经济地理学学科发展,提出新经济地理学、制度转向/文化转向、服务国家需求是未来研究的三大主要方向。     

基于《Economic Geography》的经济地理学知识图谱分析

以《Economic Geography》载文数据与引文数据为数据源,借助Citespace 工具从作者与关键词两方面进行文献计量与知识图谱绘制,挖掘经济地理学研究的知识基础、学术群体与近期研究热点。研究表明：①纳入第一作者发文量、h 指数、g 指数等发文与引文双角度指标的作者学术影响力评价体系的结果更客观全面;②美英等国在经济地理研究中处于整体主导地位;③经济地理领域存在分别以Stopper M、Dicken P、Berry B J L、Casetti E为代表且秉承同一研究脉络的学术群体,且各时段研究议题侧重点不同;④经济地理研究关键词所涉面较宽,如全球化、创新、网络、集群、性别、劳动力、政治、政策等,尺度、组织、灵活性、政治、美国等关键词近年受关注度较多。     

THE EMPIRICS OF NEW ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY*

ABSTRACT Although a rich and extensive body of theoretical research on new economic geography has emerged, empirical research remains comparatively less well developed. This paper reviews the existing empirical literature on the predictions of new economic geography models for the distribution of income and production across space. The discussion highlights connections with other research in regional and urban economics, identification issues, potential alternative explanations, and possible areas for further research.     

关于海洋经济地理学发展与展望

本文在介绍了我国海洋经济地理学的发展过程和存在问题的基础上,从国际背景和国内需求两个方面展望了我国海洋经济地理的发展前景。最后,分析了国际海洋地理学的三个发展趋势,具体论述了我国海洋经济地理学四个发展重点,即海洋产业发展与布局、海洋资源与可持续发展研究、滨海旅游空间结构研究和海洋地缘政治研究。     

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY IN THE USSR

Development of the field of political geography in the USSR is surveyed, beginning with its early roots in the late 19th Century and early Soviet period and ties to foreign area studies and historical geography in the 1950s. Activities of the 1980s are described in terms of university-level course offerings, research at universities and research institutes, and theoretical and methodological publications. Concluding sections survey current research trends (electoral geography, developing countries, the ocean, reassessment of geopolitics) and outline general theoretical issues and major questions for future research. An extensive bibliography follows (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

区域发展理论与当代经济地理学的发展

本文系统地阐述了区域发展理论发展进程的三个阶段,分析了每个阶段最有代表性的关于区域发展的理论,及其对当代经济地理学的影响。指出,区域发展理论在经济地理学研究领域中的广泛应用,有力地推动着学科的发展进程。     

劳工地理研究新进展评述

在经济地理学的研究中,劳工常常被看作是与自然资源、资金、技术等同类的经济要素,只重视劳动成本,忽视了劳工作为社会活动主要参与者的角色。近年来,劳工地理研究取得了长足的进展,弥补了传统地理学研究的不足。全球化背景下的工人运动、劳工组织和地方劳工控制体制,劳工市场的空间分割,不同政治、经济和文化背景下的农区劳工地方化逐渐成为劳工地理的重要研究方向。     

REPLY TO THE SOVIET REVIEW OF RADICAL GEOGRAPHY

A Norwegian geographer and Deputy Head of the International Northern Sea Route Programme (INSROP) Secretariat surveys past, present, and potential future Northern Sea Route (NSR) cargo flows. The route's economic potential and importance, both as an international transit route and as a transport corridor to and from the Russian Arctic regions, are discussed. An overview of the main NSR infrastructure components (icebreakers, ice-class cargo vessels, ports) also is made, with estimates of future capacity. Based on the survey of future cargo potential, future infrastructure requirements are calculated and compared with estimated capacity in order to identify possible future bottlenecks for NSR operations. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L90, O18, R40. 1 figure, 4 tables, 76 references.     

Reviews / Comptes rendus: THE SOVIET UNION AND THE GEOGRAPHY STUDENT -A SECOND LOOK

Book reviewed in this article:
The Soviet Wood-Processing Industry: A Linear Programming Analysis of the Role of Transportation Costs in Location and Flow Patterns, by BRENTON M. BARR
Cities of the Soviet Union, Studies in Their Functions, Size, Density, and Growth, by CHAUNCY D. HARRI
Economic Geography of the USSR, by A. LAVRISHCHEV (translated by DAVID MYSHNE)
Geography of the U.S.S.R. (2nd ed.), by PAUL E. LYDOLPH
Yakutia before Its Incorporation into the Russian State, by A. P. OKLADNIKOV (translated by Dr and Mrs STEPHEN P. DUNN and edited by HENRY N. MICHAEL)
Basic Industrial Resources of the U.S.S.R., by THEODORE SHABA.
Victorian Toronto, 1850 to 1900: Pattern and Process of Growth, by P eter G. G oheen
« l'électricité au Québec >>, par A lain M etton
Urban Water Supply Alternatives: Perception and Choice in the Grand Basin, Ontario, by I an MACI ver
Pioneer Settlement in Northeast Argentina, by R obert C. E idt
Spatial Organization, by R onald A bler , J ohn A dams , and P eter G ould
Geoforum, Journal of Physical, Human and Regional Geosciences (Executive Editor: W olf T ietze )     

中国区域经济地理学的发展历程、现状与展望

区域经济地理学是一门既古老又年轻的学科,属于地理科学体系中区域地理的重要部分和经济地理学的重要分支。区域经济地理学的发展历程可以分为四个阶段。萌芽时期:从先秦到1909年德国工业经济学家Max Weber发表《工业区位论》为止,该时期主要探寻区域经济地理学的发展规律;奠基时期:从1910年到1949年新中国成立为止,为区域经济地理学研究框架的形成阶段;形成时期:新中国成立到1978年的十一届三中全会召开为止,该时期建立了相对完善的区域经济地理学学科体系;成熟时期:1979年至今,为该学科在中国区域开发中的广泛实践阶段。在中国区域经济地理学的发展过程中,陈才先生融合中外理论与经验用于中国实际,为中国本土区域经济地理学的理论基础与学科体系的形成与完善作出了创造性的杰出贡献。在总结了区域经济地理学的理论现状、方法现状和应用现状之后,认为区域经济地理学的未来发展趋势主要集中在三个方向:区域经济地理学与新经济地理学、区域经济学不断交融交互发展;"三维目标空间"理论将成为区域经济地理学研究的一种认识论;低碳经济的发展将赋予区域经济地理学研究的新内涵。