最近中国史学史学科的发展趋势及展望

本文包括两部分,一是归纳了中国史学史学科自20世纪90年代以来的新进展,主要表现在：对中国传统史学理论进行自觉研究,并取得切实的成绩;20世纪史学成为研究热点;史学史分支学科的建设取得了进展;研究范围有了明显的扩大。二是对新世纪中国史学史学科的建设提出设想和建议。即继续扩展研究内容;更加关注现实史学的发展;加强研究机构和队伍的建设;在历史学专业的范围内普及中国史学史的教学;保持严谨扎实的学风。     

矿业城市类型及发展现状比较研究

按照本文确定的矿业城市标准,我国现有矿业城市的数量为129个。本文对按照矿业类型划分的八类矿业城市发展现状进行比较。总体上看,矿业城市的发展状况比非矿业城市差,低于全国城市的平均水平;在矿业城市中,不同类型发展情况不同,石油城市在经济效益、财政收入、基础设施建设、在岗职工工资及利用外资能力等方面都是发展最好的,并且许多方面超过了全国城市的平均水平,其余类型的矿业城市发展较差,但不同类型发展状况不同,即使同一类型的矿业城市发展状况也不一样。矿业城市发展状况的不同为制定矿业城市转型政策提供了基础和依据。     

中国旅游业地域不平衡分析

由于多种因素:中国自然地理条件、社会历史文化、经济状况等的区域差异,使我国旅游业表现出地域差异。因此本文根据三大地区的划分,着重比较了各地区的供给与需求的差异,并分析了其差异性的根源。在旅游供给的地域不平衡部分,对旅游供给的四个部分:旅游资源及其开发阶段与趋势、旅游设施、旅游服务、旅游基础设施进行分析。在需求的地域不平衡部分,对国内旅游、海外旅游、出境旅游逐个进行了分析。最后提出了我国区域旅游业发展的策略。     

Unwritten Factors Affecting Structural Funds: The Influence of Regional Political Behaviours on the Implementation of EU Cohesion Policy

While EU regional policy has the ambitious objective of supporting lagging regions and promoting inter-regional convergence, its impact is dependent on the ability of regional policymakers to secure and use EU funding to meet the region's needs. This paper aims to show under which conditions politics has a defining influence on the distribution, allocation and utilization of structural funds (SF), specifically in Objective 1 regions. The empirical analysis focuses on the 2000–2006 programming cycle in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The results show that regions politically aligned with national governing coalitions tend to perform better in terms of received SF support and enjoy more flexibility in implementing SF. However, the influence of regional political behaviours on economic performances is very limited. The findings confirm the importance of politics in influencing SF implementation, but its limited influence on economic outcomes.     

How Beneficial is a Knowledge-based Development Strategy for Peripheral Regions? A Case Study

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the success factors of peripheral regions in the knowledge economy. It explores the viability of the knowledge-based development model for peripheral regions by examining the experiences of a follower region in Finland. The empirical case is Seinäjoki region in Western Finland which adopted a determined knowledge, research and innovation-driven development strategy in the 1980s. The article analyses the evolution of this strategy and assesses the progress and results that have been achieved until 2012. The results show that the strategy has improved the preconditions and structures for innovation, but there have been difficulties in turning these into real innovation outcomes. Peripheral regions may benefit from a knowledge-based development strategy but the development is slow and only takes place through building base capacity in the region.     

Contrasts between first-tier and second-tier cities in Europe: a functional perspective

Second-tier cities have been experiencing renewed interest within policy and research contexts, which is reversing a tradition of relative neglect due to the long-standing focus on large cities and capitals. This paper compares European second-tier and first-tier cities with regard to the presence of urban functions and how these are spread over their urban regions. The analysis shows the existence of a substantial ‘first city bonus’: a surplus of urban functions in first-tier cities which cannot be explained by their size or network embeddedness. We also show that second-tier cities are better served with urban functions in the absence of a dominant capital. In first-tier urban regions, the core municipality exploits the critical mass of the urban region to support its own functions, leaving that region functionally underserved. Second-tier cities lack this absorptive capacity, and their urban regions are endowed with more urban functions. These functional differences mean that second-tier cities demand a differentiated research and policy approach, in which city-regional integration becomes an important territorial development strategy. Rather than the dispersion process in first-tier cities leading to a ‘regionalization of the city’, integration in second-tier urban regions may be seen as a process of ‘citification of the region’.     

Spatial cooperation patterns and their impact on innovation outcomes: lessons from firms in a low-technology region

This paper examines cooperation patterns of firms in the German low-technology region of Lower Bavaria. Particular emphasis is placed on the interplay among the spatial scale of cooperation, the form of cooperation and the type of innovation. Generic results show that overall, firms with a spatially more diverse set of cooperation linkages have a higher likelihood of innovating. However, the innovation outcomes differ depending on the spatial scale of cooperation. While cooperation with regional partners positively correlates with low-threshold innovations, cooperation with spatially distant partners positively correlates with product innovations. Surprisingly, it is application-oriented cooperation that channels the relation in both cases. The findings support the view that innovation of firms in low-technology regions is driven by ‘development’ rather than ‘research’. It also suggests that innovation-driven growth may even be possible in regions with limited values on the traditional innovation-supporting factors.     

Reimagining GIScience for relational spaces

A mismatch between largely absolute Newtonian models of space in GIScience and the relational spaces of critical human geography has contributed to mutual disinterest between the fields. Critical GIS has offered an intellectual critique of GIScience without substantially altering how particular key geographical concepts are expressed in data structures. Although keystone ideas in GIScience such as Tobler's “First Law” and the modifiable areal unit problem speak to enduring concerns of human geography, they have drawn little interest from that field. Here, we suggest one way to reformulate the computational approach to the region for relational space, so that regions emerge not through proximity in an absolute space or similarities in intensive properties, but according to their similarities in relations. We show how this might operate theoretically and empirically, working through three illustrative examples. Our approach gestures toward reformulating key terms in GIScience like distance, proximity, networks, and spatial building blocks such as the polygon. Re‐engaging the challenges of representing geographical concepts computationally can yield new kinds of GIS and GIScience resonant with theoretical ideas in human geography, and also lead to critical human geographic practices less antagonistic to computation.     

Compensation modes of border effects in cross‐border regions

Both international and regional economics discuss borders as barriers to economic growth. They hamper trade flows between areas sharing an international border (a demand effect), as well as causing firms’ inefficiency because of the increase in production costs (supply side). In the theoretical and empirical discussions, no question has been raised on whether regional economies are able to set up compensation mechanisms, by replacing low endowments with high efficiency in the use of existing assets, or by compensating an inefficient use of internal assets with an efficient use of external ones. The reply to this question has normative implications. Empirical evidence on the universe of 1,398 European NUTS3 regions is presented and policy suggestions elaborated.     

Changing mental maps of the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean regions

ABSTRACT

Little empirical research has considered the way in which macro-regions are perceived outside academic and political circles. Such studies alone can determine what regional narratives mean for the wider public, and the extent to which they coincide with region-building images produced by elites. This article examines the mental maps of high school seniors in 10 cities in the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean regions, focusing upon their perception and knowledge of other countries in those areas. Despite efforts at region building since the Cold War, the two regions remain divided on mental maps. Students have little knowledge of countries across the sea from their own, although such knowledge is generally greater among those from coastal (and particularly island) locations. A comparison with maps constructed by Gould in 1966 reveals that the perception of countries within one's own region among Italian and Swedish students has become more negative over the last 50 years.