地理科学进展 ›› 2013, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (8): 1266-1275.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2013.08.010

• 研究综述 • 上一篇    下一篇

信息与通信地理学的学科性质、发展历程与研究主题

孙中伟1, 王杨2   

  1. 1. 石家庄学院资源与环境系, 石家庄050035;
    2. 河北师范大学旅游系, 石家庄050016
  • 收稿日期:2012-12-01 修回日期:2013-03-01 出版日期:2013-08-25 发布日期:2013-08-25
  • 作者简介:孙中伟(1978-),男,河北滦南人,硕士,副教授,主要从事信息与通信地理学研究。E-mail: sunzhongwei@126.com
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金项目(41101125)

Information and communication geography:Discipline nature, development process, and research topics

SUN Zhongwei1, WANG Yang2   

  1. 1. Department of Resource & Environment, Shijiazhuang College, Shijiazhuang 050035, China;
    2. Department of Tourism, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050016, China
  • Received:2012-12-01 Revised:2013-03-01 Online:2013-08-25 Published:2013-08-25

摘要: 信息与通信地理学是人文地理学的新分支,其发轫于20 世纪60 年代地理学者对电报和电话的关注,近年来一直是人文地理学研究的重要领域之一。目前,国内外学者在信息与通信地理学的称谓和研究对象等方面存在较大争议,已成为制约该学科发展的一大障碍。研究表明:将该领域研究统一称为信息与通信地理学既是学科发展的必然,也与国际通行的信息与通信技术名称符合;信息与通信地理学是研究人文地理学在信息与通信技术影响下发展变化的新学科,特别关注信息与通信技术的地理特征及社会内涵;信息与通信地理学具有跨学科性质,尤其是与地理信息科学及人文地理学所有分支都具有不同程度交叉;其发展已经历了研究兴趣确立、通信网络主体和多元快速发展3 个阶段。本文提出了当前信息与通信地理学研究主要的7 个主题及一系列切入点,包括信息通信网络的空间组织、网络空间的地理内涵、ICT 对经济活动空间组织影响、ICT 对城市内外部空间组织影响、ICT对空间与地方的认知和表征影响、ICT对政治与监督影响、网络空间的可视化与制图。

关键词: 发展历程, 信息与通信地理学, 学科性质, 研究主题

Abstract: Information and communication geography is a new sub-discipline of human geography, which started in 1960s when geographers began to pay attention to telegraph and telephone, and a specialty group dedicated to "communication geography" emerged in the Association of American Geographers, overlapping the interests of the commission on geography of the global information society in the International Geographical Union. The new sub-discipline has been one of the frontiers in the areas of geographical research ever since. At present, controversies still exist among domestic and foreign scholars about the research objects and the name of the research area, which has become the biggest obstacle to the development of the new sub-discipline. Many names have been used at home and abroad, such as communication geography, information geography, geography of telecommunications, virtual geography, geography of cyberspace/cybergeography, geography of the information society, media geography and information and communication geography, etc. Studies indicated that referring this new sub-discipline as information and communication geography is not only an inevitable result of its development, but also consistent with the name of international information and communication technologies. As the progress of the new research field already showed, information and communication geography has been prompted and influenced by information and communication technologies for human geography. The new sub-discipline explores and examines the new meaning and applicability of traditional theories of human geography, as well as develops its own new theories. Furthermore, the study of information and communication geography abroad appears to be divided into the broad sense and the narrow sense approaches, however, it is not the time to conclude on which is better yet. Too much generalization might not be good for the scope definition and growth of this new discipline. Information and communication geography has interdisciplinary nature, especially in that it has varying degrees of crossing with geographical information science and all branches of human geography. The development of international information and communications geography has been divided into three stages: establishment of research interest (1960s-1970s), subject of communication networks (1980s-1990s) and multiple rapid developments (2000 to present). Based on current international research of information and communications geography, this sub-discipline provides seven main research topics, including spatial organization of communication network, geographical context of cyberspace, spatial organization of regional economic activities, organization of the internal and external urban space, cognition and representation of space and place, impact of information and communication technologies on politics and surveillance, and mapping cyberspace. The impact of information and communication technologies on the development of geography is likely only in the early stages, and it will continue to expand the scope and magnitude, but the ultimate extent of the impact in the end is unknown.

Key words: development process, discipline nature, information and communication geography, research topic