竞争性区域主义与区域建构研究展望

随着全球化的不断深入,竞争性区域主义开始盛行于全球各地,并掀起区域建构的热潮。本研究对西方学术界的竞争性区域主义和区域建构理论进行了系统综述,内容涉及社会建构的区域、空间规划在区域建构中的作用、区域建构的阶段和区域建构中利益相关者的冲突与博弈等方面。在此基础上,对我国城市竞争和空间规划等相关研究进行了综述,对我国竞争性区域主义与区域建构研究进行了展望。

PROSPECTS OF COMPETITIVE REGIONALISM AND REGION-BUILDING

With the deepening process of globalization,competitive regionalism is prevalent in the world,and region-building has been induced in many regions as a tool to enhance city and region’s competitiveness.Under this circumstance,many inter-jurisdiction city-regions or cross-border regions are emerging in the world.With the triple process of decentralization,marketization and globalization,transitional China has adopted city-region planning to serve the purpose of competitiveness promotion since 2000,and many local governments also substantiate spatial planning through city reposition,infrastructure improvement,and strategies of spatial and industrial development.This study thoroughly reviews western literature on competitive regionalism and region-building,and proposes a theoretical framework involving region as social construction,the role of spatial planning in region-building,stages of region-building,and stakeholders’ conflicts in region-building.In theory,region is conceived as space formed by various social forces,in other words,a result of interaction among various interests,instead of a geographic and fixed unit defined by natural physical barriers.Spatial planning has played an activated role in region-building,by defining the discourse for region-building.For the stages of region-building,there are five levels of regionness,with increasing regionness from regional space to regional complex,regional society,regional community and regional institutionalized polity.Of course,region-building is not a linear process.Instead,there are many conflicts among stakeholders due to heterogenous interests and the lasting territorial logic,even after the formation of new regional space.These four lenses are very important aspects for studies on competitive regionalism,which can be applied to transitional China’s study.In addition,this study also examines relevant literature on urban competition and spatial planning in urban China.It is argued that we need to investigate China’s city-region competition,spatial planning and region-building from the perspective of institutional economy.Finally,four further directions that deserve more scholarly attention are highlighted.