社会建构主义视角下的区域：研究综述与启示

区域一直是地理学研究的核心概念。近些年来,如同“空间”和“地方”在本体论和认识论的变化,“区域”的含义也受到了由空间分析范式转变所带来的挑战和修正。基于这种背景,本文梳理了从社会建构主义视角理解区域问题的相关文献,并归纳了主要研究议题。研究发现：区域的含义逐渐从封闭性、有边界的、稳定的领域性特征转向开放性、可渗透的、流动的关系性特征。当前区域的社会建构的研究议题主要包括区域身份的形成与建构、区域的制度化与去制度化、区域化与区域发展三个方面。值得指出的是,区域的社会建构不是要摒弃区域具有固定领域形状的观点,而是要看到经济、社会和政治力量对区域变化的影响,理解区域是制度化、社会建构和政治上存在争议的空间。更重要在于,探讨区域在领域性和关系性之间的相互作用并对区域发展的影响。此外,文章试图廓清“区域”和“地方”这两个术语在人文地理研究中的区别和联系。最后讨论了运用社会建构主义视角看待区域问题的方法论意义,并进一步提出了国内未来研究值得关注的方向。

CONCEPTUALIZING REGION FROM A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PERSPECTIVE: RESEARCH PROGRESS AND IMPLICATIONS

Region has always been the core concept of geographical research. Recently, just like the change of "space" and "place" in ontology and epistemology, the region has continued to be an elusive category: its various meanings and the implications therein frequently being challenged and modified through paradigmatic shifts in such spatial analysis. Under this background, this paper reviews the literatures on understanding regional issues from the perspective of social constructivism and summarizes the main research topics. It is found that the meaning of region gradually changes from close, bounded and stable to open, unbounded and flowing. There are three aspects for the main research topics of region by the understanding of social construction, including the formation and construction of regional identity, the institutionalization and de-institutionalization of region, regionalization and regional development. However, it is worthy to point out that the social construction of region is not to abandon the view that region has the fixed territory, but to see the influence of economic, social and political forces on regional changes and understand that region is the space of institutionalization, social construction and politics. Finally, this article discusses the methodological significance of using social constructivism to understand regional issues, and further puts forward the research direction worthy of attention in the future.