Most Download

  • Published in last 1 year
  • In last 2 years
  • In last 3 years
  • All
  • Most Downloaded in Recent Month
  • Most Downloaded in Recent Year

Please wait a minute...
  • Select all
    |
  • Articles
    PENG Qiuzhi, HUANG Peiyi, CHEN Di, ZHU Dan
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2023, 42(10): 2019-2032. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.10.013

    One of the basic topics in population geography is how the population distributes and changes on terrain gradients. With the improvement of data accuracy and quality, it is feasible to conduct macroscopic analysis for this question based on kilometer grid cells. This study analyzed the distribution and change characteristics of China's population on the gradients of elevation, ruggedness, and slope from 2000 to 2020, using methods of frequency distribution statistics, based on 1-km grid statistical cells, and using spatial demographic datasets (WorldPop) and digital elevation model datasets (SRTMGL1). The effects of different digital elevation model datasets (including ASTER GDEM and SRTMGL1) and spatial demographic datasets (including WorldPop, LandScan, and GPW) on the results were also compared and the differences between the 1-km grid and 100-meter grid data were further explored with SRTMGL1 and WorldPop. The results show that: 1) The population increasingly tends to be distributed at the lower position of terrain gradients. The half-balance points of the population distribution on elevation, ruggedness, and slope gradients were 95.6 m, 50.7 m, and 3.01° respectively in 2000, and decreased to 77.0 m, 46.8 m, and 2.88° in 2020. 2) Dominant area of population distribution relative to land area has been stably located at a lower position of terrain gradients. The upper boundary of the dominant part of the population over terrain (MU) is stably located at the elevation of 520 m, the ruggedness of 137 m, and the slope of 6.84°, respectively, and the population dominance rate rose from 0.511, 0.248, and 0.217 in 2000 to 0.522, 0.274, and 0.255 in 2020, respectively. 3) Different spatial demographic datasets have no effect on the distribution and change pattern of population on terrain gradients, while DEM datasets have significant effects on the ruggedness gradient and slope gradient distribution of population. There is no difference between 1-km grid and 100-meter grid data for this study, and the 1-km grid dataset is recommended for the study of population distribution at the national scale and above. This study provides a new basic reference for understanding of the relationship between population distribution and terrain in China at the kilometer grid scale.

  • Reviews
    LI Sida, FANG Jiayi, ZHOU Wei, JIANG Tingchen, LIU Lintao, FENG Xi
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(1): 190-202. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.01.014

    High tide flooding (HTF)—a kind of minor coastal flooding that usually occurs near the high tide level, becomes more frequent under climate change. It has a certain impact on the coastal socioeconomic system and natural environment, and is a hot issue in low-lying coastal cities. This article examined the definition of HTF, and systematically summarized the main progress of HTF research in terms of its drivers, impacts, risk assessment, and frequency forecasting. In the future, it is recommended to strengthen the research on the drivers, risk assessment, and forecast of HTF frequency. These include extensive monitoring of HTF, quantifying the role of interactions between factors leading to HTF, comprehensively assessing HTF risk, and accurately predicting HTF frequency. All these works will finally contribute to the disaster prevention and mitigation of HTF in coastal cities.

  • Reviews
    NIU Yue, ZHEN Feng, XI Guangliang, CHANG Enyu, XU Jingtian
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(5): 1008-1020. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.05.012

    In the context of a new technological revolution and the rise of public health awareness, wearable technology has experienced rapid development and widespread adoption, deeply integrating into the practice of urban resident leisure-time physical activities. However, the current theoretical exploration on the spatiotemporal effects and mechanism of residents' activities lags far behind the actual development needs. From an interdisciplinary perspective, this study focused on the comprehensive and systematic theoretical research of geography. The initial step of this study involved a quantitative analysis of the literature using the CiteSpace 5.7 software, providing insights into the general research trend and direction in the field. Then, the study summarized the changes in urban resident leisure-time physical activities under the influence of wearable technology from three perspectives: digital decision making, new spatiotemporal characteristics, and diversified experiences. The research implications underscore the need to deepen the understanding of the decision-making mechanism of resident leisure-time physical activity, strengthen the analysis of complex spatiotemporal rules of leisure-time physical activity, and emphasize research on satisfaction with leisure-time physical activity experiences in multiple situations. Furthermore, the article proposed a research framework for urban resident leisure-time physical activity under the influence of wearable technology. It stressed the importance of the crossover and integration of multidisciplinary theories, with a call to enrich analyses across five dimensions: research subject, technology, activity, space, and time. Additionally, the article argued for innovating research methods, expanding research content, and strengthening the application of health-oriented spatial planning practices. This comprehensive approach may enhance the understanding of the dynamic relationship between wearable technology, urban spaces, and resident leisure-time physical activities, and provide valuable references for urban spatial planning practices guided by residents' activity needs in the digital health era.

  • Articles
    LI Xiaoyue, YU Bin, WANG Binyan
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(5): 936-949. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.05.007

    Urban-rural economic circulation is an important part of the macro economic circulation in China. Optimizing urban-rural economic circulation is a fundamental project for building a new development pattern. This study analyzed the connotation of urban-rural economic circulation from four dimensions: supply and demand relationship, industrial linkage, factor flow, and circulation carrier, and constructed an evaluation index system, taking 2010-2020 as the study period and the Jianghan Plain as the case study area. It comprehensively applied the entropy weighting method and the obstacle degree model to reveal the characteristics of change of the spatiotemporal pattern of urban-rural economic circulation in the study area, and explored the path of its optimization. The results show that: 1) During the study period, the level of urban-rural economic circulation in the Jianghan Plain region was low but continued to grow unevenly. The composite and sub-dimensional indices (supply and demand relationship, industrial linkage, factor flow, and circulation carrier) of urban-rural economic circulation grew from 0.2164, 0.0616, 0.0534, 0.0641, and 0.0373 to 0.4095, 0.1308, 0.0850, 0.0990, and 0.0947, with an average annual growth rate of 8.92%, 11.24%, 5.93%, 5.45%, and 15.35%, respectively. 2) During the same period, the urban-rural economic circulation in the study area generally showed a low level of aggregation, regional differences increased slightly, and the spatial coefficient of variation increased from 0.2055 to 0.2126. The high-value areas of supply and demand relationship and circulation carrier index of the urban-rural economic circulation gradually aggregated to the main transportation arteries and the urban areas along the routes, and the spatial coefficient of variation decreased from 0.3166 and 0.5665 to 0.2636 and 0.4705, but the industrial linkage and factor flow spatial distribution characteristics were not as distinct. 3) The obstacle degree of urban-rural economic circulation in the study area showed a decreasing trend year by year, and the sub-dimension obstacle degree ranked as industrial linkage (28.20%) > circulation carrier (27.89%) > factor flow (23.98%) > supply and demand relationship (19.93%), and the top four indicator obstacle degree ranked as night-light index (11.23%) > proportion of built-up area (10.79%) > output value of agricultural services (10.65%) > loan balance of financial institutions per unit of GDP (9.82%). 4) The optimization of the urban-rural economic circulation in the Jianghan Plain region can be divided into three types and six sub-districts, including single obstacle type, double obstacle type, and triple obstacle type, and according to the different types of obstacles in each district, the appropriate development strategies for the optimization of the urban-rural economic circulation were proposed respectively. The results of this study can provide some theoretical guidance and practical inspiration for the development of urban-rural economic circulation in the new era.

  • Special Column: Rural hollowing governance and revitalization
    XU Yuli, LONG Hualou, TU Shuangshuang, JIANG Yanfeng
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(3): 434-445. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.03.002

    In the process of rapid urbanization, regional human-environment relationships in rural areas have become increasingly complex, and these areas are facing the challenge of integrating limited resources to realize industrial transformation and development. From the perspective of the factor-structure-function transformation of the rural territorial system, this study elucidated the conceptual connotation and driving force of rural industrial restructuring. On this basis, it classified the typical patterns of rural industrial restructuring according to the development direction of the dominant industries, with a specific focus on Guangxi. The study then proceeded to construct the guarantee mechanism for rural industrial restructuring. The following four main conclusions were reached: 1) Rural industrial restructuring can be comprehended as the process of optimizing spatial layout, extending the industrial chain, and enhancing the industrial system through industrial cultivation, adjustment, upgrading, and transformation. This process is grounded in the integration of the basic factors of industrial development—such as labor, land, and capital—in the context of local development conditions and external market environment. Rural industrial restructuring is characterized by the diversification of subjects and business forms, aiming to achieve both the benign and balanced development of rural industries internally and the value output externally. 2) In the practice of industrial restructuring, external driving forces and endogenous development forces of the rural territorial system interact with each other to jointly promote the coupling and coordination of various factors related to industrial development. 3) Rural industrial restructuring comprises five typical patterns, including the specialization of agricultural production, the industrialization of traditional culture, the tourism-driven development, the agglomeration of manufacturing, and service-oriented commerce and logistics. 4) In terms of policy, emphasis should be placed on guiding the concentration of key factors of production in rural areas by breaking down institutional barriers; building modern rural industrial systems by optimizing the industrial structure and improving the industrial layout; and improving the benefit linkage mechanism by adhering to the principle that the central position of farmers should not be compromised. Through a comprehensive approach, an institutional arrangement can be made for promoting rural industrial restructuring and facilitating the revitalization of rural industries.

  • Reviews
    HE Jinliao, CHEN Yifei, LI Wei
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(5): 1021-1036. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.05.013

    Music geography is an interdisciplinary subject between geography, musicology, culture studies, and other disciplines. Compared with the well-established music geography in Western countries, music geography in China is still in the embryonic phase. This study attempted to provide a literature review for the progress of music geography research outside China by having a close look at its origin, development paths, essential debates, frameworks, and approaches, based on an in-depth bibliometric analysis. First, this study found that international research on music geography has extended its scope from the perspective of cultural geography to an interdisciplinary discourse and received great attention from economic geography, political geography, and urban geography. Second, the core themes of international music geography research can be generally classified into five branches: music regions and cultural diffusion, industrial clusters and networks, temporal-spatial phenomena and influences of music performance, music-based identity and cultural politics, and music geography as a special urban soundscape. In terms of theories and approaches, international music geography research can be divided into four main branches: cultural geography, geopolitics, economic geography, and urban geography, which are respectively influenced by the non-representational theory of new cultural geography, popular geopolitics and the relational turn of economic geography, and other important trends. Lastly, this article proposed that there is a great necessity to pay more attention to music research by Chinese geographers as it serves as an ideal case and instrument to inquire into geographical issues such as local identity, authenticity, and sense of place, local-global connections, creative production networks, temporary projects, urban planning, and social well-being.

  • Special Column: Rural hollowing governance and revitalization
    CHENG Mingyang, YIN Zhenzhen, ZHANG Dong, LI Erling
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(3): 474-487. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.03.005

    Suburban villages with superior ecological endowments can often realize rural development by virtue of landscape resources and spillover effect of big cities. But due to the rapid urbanization and urban "siphon effect", suburban villages often experience hollow problems such as labor emigration and industrial decay. Taking Yangjiamen, a traditional village in the Songshan Scenic Area, as a case study site, and based on the actor network theory, this study analyzed the process and mechanism of rural transformation by means of semi-structured interviews and participatory observation, and examined how endogenous impetus promoted rural revitalization. The results show that the case study village went through three stages of development: rural resources concentrated in the hands of rural sages, diversified industrial development feeding back to rural residents, and government-led enterprise-resident participation in diversified development, and experienced the change of rural sage→government-led→diversified governance of social networks. The dynamic mechanism changed from endogenous forces to endogenous development forces combined with external forces. This process has promoted the transformation and development of rural population, land, industry, and society, and realized the revitalization of talents, industries, organizations, culture, and ecology. This study provides some theoretical reference and practical guidance for rural revitalization in suburban hollow villages with superior ecological resource endowments.

  • Articles
    YU Leshui, MA Beibei, YU Leshan, CAO Wenyu, XUE Dongqian, SONG Yongyong
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(4): 755-770. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.04.010

    Against the background of the current high degree of urban-rural spatial reconfiguration, the new constructed characteristics of happiness and its urban-rural heterogeneity of humans, which are the actors and ultimate target of development, are of great significance to the balanced and effective enhancement of the dividends of happiness in China's urban-rural development. This research introduced capital as a tool into the study of happiness in human geography, and used data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to design an analytical framework for the construction of happiness by multidimensional capital from the three dimensions of economy, culture, and society. The Probit regression model was used to empirically analyze and explore the constructed characteristics of happiness and its urban-rural differences in the context of high mobility in 2018 from the perspectives of level and structure. The results show that: 1) Chinese residents' happiness was at a high level and relatively balanced between urban and rural areas, and the constructs of urban and rural residents' happiness are diversified under the "level" perspective, that is, the basic effect of economic capital, the transformative effect of cultural capital, and the strong sensitivity of social capital contributed to the enhancement of happiness in urban and rural areas. 2) Having considered the integrity of capital "structure" and ecological niche, the impact of multidimensional capital on the construction of happiness has evolved from one-way enhancement effect to uncertainty and structuralized characteristics, especially the strengthening or missing effects caused by the dominant or deficient local ecological niche, which makes the capital dimension more complex in the construction of happiness. 3) There were significant urban-rural differences in the response strength of residents' happiness to various dimensions of capital, among which social capital showed the strongest sensitivity and the most significant urban-rural differences in the construction of happiness, which indicates that China's current new-type urbanization process should pay attention to the reproduction mechanism and effect of urban-rural social capital. The results of the study are conducive to revealing the modern and local characteristics of the happiness construct in China, and provide a basis for balanced and effective policy formulation to enhance the happiness of Chinese urban and rural residents.

  • Reviews
    ZHOU Yan, XUE Desheng, GAO Quan
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(2): 402-416. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.02.015

    Since the appearance of the "re-materializing" approach in human geography, the subjectivity of material has been reappraised in the research framework of geography of migration. This reflection helps establishing a new research paradigm that combines mobility and materiality to explain the increasingly complex migration situation in the world. Although the concept of "material turn" first appeared in the literature of social sciences, there is limited research that systematically reviews how geography of migration engages with the materialist approach. Therefore, we intended to examine the current research trends, theoretical debates, and research frontiers in geography of migration, and then construct a theoretical framework that foregrounds the interactive relationship between migration and material. This article first examined the philosophical theory of Western material research, finding that the "material turn" trend was originally rooted in Western materialism, new materialism, and body phenomenology. Second, through the quantitative analysis of the migration-related literature in geography, we found that the research engaging "material turn" in the past 10 years mainly focused on four research hotspots: 1) migration infrastructure; 2) migration material culture; 3) immigrants' bodies, emotion, and politics; and 4) more-than-human migration geography. Focusing on the key research on material theories, this article summarized the current insights in Western and Chinese geography of migration to systematically explain the agency of material during the migration process, which may shed light on the importance of material in mediating the relationship between immigrant and place. Finally, this article constructed a theorical model around the relationship of "migrant-material-place", and further put forward the research prospect of establishing Chinese localized immigration theory. The research on "material turn" not only helps to guide new theoretical trends in geography of migration, but also promotes the place integration of international and intraregional immigrants in China.

  • Reviews
    ZHANG Ruibo, WANG Jinsong, WANG Quancheng, HU Jian, WU Fei, LIU Ning, GAO Zhangwei, SHI Rongxi, LIU Mengjie, ZHOU Qingping, NIU Shuli
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2023, 42(12): 2471-2484. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.12.015

    Improving the carbon sequestration and sink capacity of terrestrial ecosystems is one of the most economical and green ways to achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals on schedule. Soil particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC), as important soil organic carbon fractions, are the key to understanding changes in the carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems. Previous studies have shown that climate warming has changed the carbon cycle of terrestrial ecosystems and affected the input of organic carbon from plants and microorganisms at the same time, but there is no unified conclusion on the response of soil organic carbon components to climate warming and their controlling factors. This article systematically introduced the framework of soil particulate and mineral-associated organic matter. The formation, transformation, and stabilization of the two components were described. The article reviewed current research progresses on the response of soil particulate and mineral-associated organic carbon to climate warming and their influencing factors. On this basis, the shortcomings of existing research and future challenges were discussed, and the key scientific issues that need to be solved urgently at present and future research directions were proposed, in order to provide a theoretical reference for the formulation of soil organic carbon management and solutions to climate change.

  • Special Column: Rural hollowing governance and revitalization
    LI Bohua, YI Yun, DOU Yindi, LI Pingping
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(3): 517-530. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.03.008

    At present, the regional spatial system of traditional villages is hollowing out, and the integration of living-production-ecological system, as a good state of regional spatial system development, can be used as a guiding goal to solve the problem of hollowing out the countryside. Exploring the driving factors and processes of typical traditional tourism-driven villages to achieve the integration of living-production-ecological system can provide a reference for the governance of traditional village hollowing out. In this study, we defined the concept of tourism-driven traditional villages' living-production-ecological system integration from the perspective of theory of practice. We took Dehang Village in Hunan Province as an example, decomposed the relevant variables that affect the traditional villages' living-production-ecological system integration relying on the theory of rootedness, and then constructed the motivation mechanism of the tourism-driven traditional villages' living-production-ecological system integration by using the method of system dynamics. The conclusions are as follows: 1) The ecological subsystem is the fundamental basis for the integration of the living-production-ecological system and consists of two circuits: humanized ecological practices and primitive ecological practices. 2) The production subsystem is the material driving force for the integration, including the three circuits of tourism industry development, tourism industry innovation, and tourism production resistance. 3) The subsystem of living is the key guarantee for the integration and consists of three circuits, namely, the practice of material life, the practice of spiritual life, and the construction of political life. 4) Ecological protection restricts the disorderly expansion of production and living, ecological product creation promotes tourism industry development and improves residents' lives, and residents' living practices in turn counter-promote tourism production innovation and ecological protection, with the three subsystems interacting with each other, and superimposing their functions. Summarizing the system dynamics of Dehang Village's spatial system to achieve the integration of living-production-ecological system under the cycle of multiple causal bonds and causal loops can provide a reference for traditional villages of the same type.

  • Special Column: Rural hollowing governance and revitalization
    LIU Minkun, SONG Yun, DENG Xiaogui, REN Lili
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(3): 545-560. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.03.010

    With the rapid development of tourism and the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, the relationship between tourism development and the realization of rural revitalization has received increasing attention. Encouraging rural residents to participate in governance in an orderly manner is an important issue for rural revitalization in the new era. Rural tourism can break spatial isolation and reconstruct the rural society, while rural residents' concepts and behaviors are profoundly shaped by their social networks. Therefore how tourism drives residents' participation in rural governance from the perspective of social network reconstruction deserves in-depth study. Based on the social embeddedness theory, this study explored whether the path of "developing rural tourism-restructuring rural social network-promoting residents' participation in rural governance" is valid and its mechanism through two progressive studies. The study found that: 1) The development of tourism can enhance the scale and heterogeneity of the rural kinship-geographic-industrial network and the network position of rural residents, increase the communication frequency and trust intensity of residents in the network, promote information sharing, and reconstruct the rural social network from the dimensions of structure and relationship. Social network affects residents' level of participation in rural governance from the four channels of information acquisition, collective supervision, role model guidance, and community consciousness. 2) The rural governance participation level of residents who participate in tourism operation is strongly promoted by industrial and geographic networks, and the rural governance participation level of residents who do not participate in tourism operation is strongly influenced by geographic and kinship networks. 3) Resident participation in rural governance activities are characterized by participation in cultural issues > participation in environmental protection > participation in political issues > participation in economic development > participation in social services.

  • Reviews
    YANG Yang, FANG Yangang, LIANG Lu
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(1): 163-178. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.01.012

    Through the exploration of positivism, structuralism, and humanism, the methodology of modern human geography research gradually became systematic and complete. This study, based on the Chinese and international literature on rural settlement landscape and renowned geography scholars' arguments, and referring to the modern human geography philosophical thoughts and their derivative methodology and epistemology, concluded that under the guidance of positivism, structuralism, and humanism, the schools of rural settlement landscape studies followed the renewal path of "tradition-criticism-integration-transcendence". Furthermore, the positivism geography mainly underlines spatiality and regionality, which is summarized as spatialized description of order characteristics; The humanism geography is knee to rediscover the place and symbolic meaning of rural settlement landscapes, with diversified people-oriented humanistic care; The structuralism geography pays more attention to the power and social relationships behind the landscape, and its causality interpretation of the power game. In general, the relevant achievements of research of geographical schools on rural settlement landscape are more microscopic than macroscopic, more static than dynamic, and more material space oriented than socioeconomic space oriented, which have their own strengths and weaknesses in guiding the practice of rural revitalization in China. In the future, a Chinese paradigm of rural settlement landscape research with Chinese characteristics should be created from the perspective of human geography methodology, focusing on the settlement landscapes of different types of rural areas to strengthen the deficiencies of various research paradigms, and develop towards the theoretical integration of positivism, humanism, and structuralism to promote rural revitalization from the perspective of geography.

  • Articles
    MA Lijun, AO Ye
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2023, 42(12): 2296-2308. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.12.002

    The digital economy is a new driving force for the high-quality development of the tourism industry in the new era. In recent years, with the emergence of blockchain, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and other emerging technologies, scientific and technological achievements have been rapidly transformed and put into production. Digital technology has become an important force to promote the restructuring of production factors, the improvement of production efficiency, and the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure. The deep integration of tourism—as a tertiary sector of the economy—and digital technology has become the key factor in promoting the upgrading of tourism industry structure. The digital economy, with its powerful productivity and high knowledge intensive form, reshapes the production mode of the tourism industry, improves its efficiency, and injects new momentum into the high-quality development of the tourism industry. However, there is a lack of theoretical exploration and empirical testing of the relationship between the digital economy and the high-quality development of the tourism industry. On the basis of analyzing the role of the digital economy in the high-quality development of the tourism industry, this study constructed an indicator system to measure the level of digital economy development and high-quality development of the tourism industry in 280 cities at the prefecture level and above in China from 2011 to 2019, and used the spatial Durbin model to empirically test the impact of the digital economy on the high-quality development of the tourism industry and its spatial spillover effects. The results show that the digital economy had a direct impact on the high-quality development of the tourism industry, and there was an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship. This result is still significantly valid after a series of robustness tests. Further analysis indicates that the digital economy had a spatial spillover effect on the high-quality development of tourism in neighboring regions, and a U-shaped nonlinear relationship existed. The results offer a new perspective for analyzing the impact of the digital economy on the high-quality development of the tourism industry, and provide theoretical reference and empirical evidence for leveraging the digital economy to support the high-quality development of the tourism industry.

  • Articles
    LI Xiande, LI Weijiang, LI Min
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2023, 42(10): 1994-2005. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.10.011

    The once-in-a-century revolution in the automobile manufacturing industry has triggered a "car-making frenzy" in China, subsequently reshaping the spatial landscape of the country's automobile manufacturing industry. This study used comprehensive micro-enterprise databases and employed location quotient indicators to compare the spatial agglomeration characteristics of the Chinese automobile manufacturing industry between 2013 and 2021. It examined the distinctive location traits of both new energy and traditional automobile manufacturing sectors, while also evaluating the co-agglomeration patterns of three pivotal industries—automobile, electronics, and electrical-in Chinese cities. Additionally, the study employed the negative binomial regression method to investigate the factors that influence the site selection of Chinese automobile manufacturing enterprises. The findings of this study are as follows: Chinese automobile manufacturing enterprises tend to concentrate in cities with a solid historical industrial foundation, showcasing a blend of continuity and change in the industrial layout. The location choices of Chinese new energy automobile manufacturing enterprises are both path dependence and path breakthrough. While cities with established prowess in traditional automobile manufacturing still hold potential for developing the new energy automobile sector, cities with weaker traditional automobile manufacturing sectors, such as Shenzhen, have made remarkable strides in the realm of new energy vehicles. In 2021, only 11 cities in China, including Shanghai, Hefei, and Suzhou, achieved the co-agglomeration of the three major manufacturing industries (automobile, electronics, and electrical). Notably, cities with well-developed automobile industries, such as Chongqing, did not gain specialized advantages in the electronics and electrical manufacturing sectors. Factors such as the diversification index of the manufacturing industry, the complexity of manufacturing knowledge, the size of the resident population, and the location quotient of the automobile manufacturing industry contribute to attracting automobile manufacturing enterprises. Traditional automobile manufacturing tends to gravitate towards cities with a concentration of foreign industrial enterprises, which diverges from the agglomeration patterns observed in the electronics manufacturing sector. The impact of location quotient in the electronics and electrical manufacturing industry on the site selection of Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturing enterprises did not demonstrate statistical significance. This study contributes to enriching the theory of industrial location in China and provides valuable insights for automotive manufacturing companies in their site selection process, as well as informing government policies related to industrial layout planning.

  • Reviews
    HU Zhiding, BI Shiyao
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(2): 387-401. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.02.014

    Amidst economic globalization, commerce and trade have become increasingly interwoven with national security and foreign policy, emphasizing the growing interdependence of commerce, trade, and foreign policy in the 21st century. This trend has intensified in the 21st century, with the rise of multipolar economies and growing trade and technology conflicts, particularly between China and the United States, fueling interest in geoeconomic research. However, geoeconomic studies still lack clear theoretical and conceptual definitions as well as a complete qualitative analytical framework, posing challenges in supporting China's peaceful rise with a theoretical perspective. This study reviewed the current landscape of Western geoeconomic research, uncovering that: 1) the theoretical development of Western geoeconomics has evolved through two phases: germination and initiation; 2) three predominant schools have emerged: geostrategy, economic geography, and critical geography; 3) geoeconomics and geopolitics are deeply intertwined, rooted in "capitalistic logic" and "territorial logic", respectively; 4) extant empirical research spans various topics, including geoeconomic strategies, the application and impact of geoeconomic tools, and the discourse and conceptualization of geoeconomics. Finally, this article pointed out that geoeconomics is a tangible reality and represents a form of political geography driven by capitalistic logic, focusing on geopolitical spatial economics. It is dialectically integrated with geopolitics, serving both as a diplomatic policy practice and an analytical framework. Based on the coupling of existing research and China's contemporary context, this article suggests that future research in China should address geoeconomic resilience, the implementation and effectiveness of geoeconomic tools at varying scales, geoeconomic practices in smaller countries and third countries, geoeconomics from the perspective of urban regionalism, and the interplay between geoeconomic discourses and practices, to advance geoeconomic theories in China. This research is helpful to accurately and comprehensively understanding geoeconomics, grasping the development trends of Western geoeconomics, and better guiding the development of geoeconomics in China, so as to serve the implementation of "the Belt and rRoad Initiative" and the peaceful rise of China.

  • Reviews
    MU Enyi, HE Canfei
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2023, 42(12): 2423-2438. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.12.012

    Analyzing the relationship and interaction between economic activities and the environment is a necessary way to achieve human-environment harmony. Environmental economic geography (EEG) emerged at the historic moment, mainly studying the impact of environmental factors on economic activities, as well as the feedback, adaptation, and transformation of economic activities to natural conditions. This article first reviewed the evolution of the discipline of EEG, constructed a research framework from the perspective of economic cycle, and found that EEG research revealed a transition from the focus on external development to the internalization of costs. Through a bibliometric analysis of Chinese and international economic-environmental literature from 1996 to 2023, the article summarized key stages in the development of EEG research, including the initial period, the construction period, and the rapid development period. Combining global value chains and material flow theory, the study analyzed the globalization, relational, institutionalization and evolutionary turn of EEG research topics. In the future, EEG research will be helpful to addressing ecological environmental governance, green innovation and industrial transformation, energy, resilience, and sustainability problems.

  • Reviews
    YANG Jingluan, LIU Weidong, LIU Zhigao
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(2): 361-373. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.02.012

    Innovation is an important driving force for regional development. Since the 1980s, scholars in geography and related disciplines have paid great attention to the relationship between innovation and regional development, and have carried out a wealth of research on regional innovation. In the early stage, regional innovation research took regional innovation system as the main research approach and explored the spatial aggregation mechanism and regional characteristics of innovation activities. In the 21st century, however, with the deepening of economic globalization and the prominence of global challenges in the fields of climate, environment, and energy, regional innovation research has shown a diversified trend in theory and research objects. Although scholars have theoretically reviewed regional innovation research, they have not paid sufficient attention to the changes in the socioeconomic background and theories of regional innovation research. To fill this gap, this article comprehensively comprehended the socioeconomic background, research propositions, and main research topics of regional innovation research paradigm change since the 1980s, revealing the evolution of regional innovation research that shifted from closed to open region precondition and from static to dynamic and transformative analysis, indicating the contribution of other perspectives such as technological innovation system, evolutionary economic geography, and transition studies, and suggesting the importance of global knowledge and the normative turn in regional innovation research. Moreover, after summarizing the current progress, this article proposed that future regional innovation research needs to pay more attention to multi-scalar and comparative regional innovation research and focus on the negative side and the role of the state in regional innovation activities.

  • Reviews
    HU Siwei, WANG Yongsheng, CAO Zhi
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2023, 42(12): 2439-2452. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.12.013

    The utilization of the resources and environment and the impact on the Earth system of modern human activities have been undergoing great changes. The environment and sustainable development of human society are facing severe challenges. The study of human-earth system coupling provides integrated approaches for solving ecological and socioeconomic problems. However, the understanding of the rural human-earth system coupling is insufficient. Therefore, reviewing the progress of research on rural human-earth system coupling is of great significance for promoting the development of human-earth system science and supporting the decision making for coordinated and sustainable development. The results of this study show that rural human-earth system coupling is a comprehensive process of interaction and mutual influence between the rural socioeconomic system and the natural ecosystem, forming a theoretical paradigm of "process-mechanism-pattern-effect-regulation". The research themes mainly include five aspects, namely, the process and pattern of rural natural and social elements coupling, the influence and feedback of climate change on agricultural production, the driving mechanism of urbanization on rural development, the telecoupling effect of globalization and agricultural trade, and the regulation effects of policy intervention and engineering measures. The research methods mainly involve the coupling evaluation models and the coupling mechanism models. Given the insufficient research on the mutual feedback and transmission mechanisms of rural human-earth system coupling at multiple scales and the lack of data models, future studies should focus on detecting the coupling process and pattern of rural human-earth system under structure transformation and scale extension, analyzing the coupling mechanism of rural human-earth system under elements flow and effects cascade, exploring the simulation and decision-making methods of rural human-earth system that are data-driven and characterized by model integration, and finding the coordination pathways of rural human-earth system under the objective of harmony between humans and nature and global sustainable development.

  • Cultural Tourism Industry and Rural Revitalization, Integrated Urban-Rural Development, Common Prosperity
    TANG Chengcai, QIN Shan, DAI Xiangyi, LV Jun
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2023, 42(8): 1437-1452. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.08.001

    Culture and tourism are important means to implement the strategy of rural revitalization and play a significant role in promoting the high-quality development and common prosperity of rural areas of China. This study analyzed 933 Chinese publications and 71 English publications retrieved from the CNKI and Web of Science databases, and used the CiteSpace software to analyze the overall situation of the research and hotspots of rural revitalization research from the perspective of culture and tourism. The results show that the research on rural revitalization from the perspective of culture and tourism in China has significant policy-oriented characteristics, and the research intensity has increased year by year. Existing research has proposed hotspots, such as rural cultural and tourism resources and landscapes, rural cultural and tourism integration, rural cultural and tourism enrichment, rural industrial development and integration, rural ecotourism, and cultural and tourism rural governance, combining with the goal of implementing the rural revitalization strategy. Although the research content is relatively rich, there is a lack of further exploration. The research methods are mainly qualitative, and the percentage of quantitative research is low. The study areas are relatively dispersed, mainly concentrated in the southwestern area, at various scales including village, township, county, and province. Finally, this review combined the contents of existing literature and proposed that future research should be innovative in terms of theory, research content, research methods, and study areas, in order to promote the integrated development of rural culture and tourism, provide references for subsequent research, and comprehensively promote the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.

  • Articles
    TA Na, CHAI Yanwei, SHEN Yue
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2023, 42(9): 1733-1744. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.09.006

    The widespread trend of suburbanization has resulted in the merging of residential and production elements in suburban areas, causing a significant increase in suburban lifestyles globally. The unique socio-economic and cultural settings of major economies like China and the United States exemplify the distinct features of suburban lifestyle development. An in-depth study of the evolutionary characteristics of suburban living spaces and lifestyles in the two countries benefits the dialogue between Chinese and Western suburban theories. A comparative study can offer valuable references for urban planning in China. This study examined the changes in how suburban living spaces are organized and how people live in them in China and the United States. It took a perspective of the daily lives of suburban residents to compare and analyze these developments. Based on the literature review, this study compared the residential, travel, and activity patterns of suburban residents in China and the United States, and examined how they relate to suburban space. It analyzed how residents' lifestyles have changed in suburban development in both countries and their impact on the suburban area. This article summarized the unique characteristics of suburban living in China and the United States, as well as the mechanisms behind them. Research has shown that both Chinese and American suburban lifestyles follow a three-stage development pattern, starting from monocentric urban lifestyles and eventually transitioning to suburban lifestyles. The suburban lifestyle in China started later, but it has experienced remarkable growth and evolution. The suburban lifestyle is now marked by a diversity of people, mixed residential areas, commuting towards the center, using public transportation, and relying on urban center for daily activities. Living in the suburbs has become a well-established and diverse way of life in the United States. It involves a mix of different populations, residential segregation, commuting inside suburban areas, using motorized mode of transportation for travel, and conducting daily activities in suburban areas. Residential diversification and motorized travel are common aspects of suburban lifestyle that China and the United States share. However, there is a difference in the level of residential integration, motorization, and suburbanization in daily activities between the two countries. Differences in suburban lifestyle between the two countries can be attributed to various factors, including the level of urbanization, transportation infrastructure, and disparities in spatial quality. These differences arise from a combination of choices made by individual residents and external limitations.

  • Cultural Development and Rural Governance
    LI Bohua, ZHANG Hao, DOU Yindi, LIU Peilin
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2023, 42(8): 1609-1622. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.08.013

    Traditional villages is an important spatial carrier of Chinese traditional culture. It is vital for traditional villages to highlight outstanding traditional culture under new urbanization. Taking the Huangdu Dong Cultural Village as an example, this study analyzed the process and mechanism of the spatial production of landscape symbols by participatory observation and in-depth interviews based on the concept of landscape symbol, the theory of landscape gene, and the framework of spatial production analysis. The results show that: 1) Landscape genes identify the overall cultural features from multiple principles and multiple levels, and are also the process of induction and extraction of landscape symbols of traditional villages. 2) Huangdu Dong Cultural Village has transformed from a traditional farming village to a traditional village integrating culture and tourism through spatial coding, landscape restoration, and shaping of cultural, then constructed landscape symbols that meet the needs of multiple actors in terms of landscape, art, life, and location to realize the emotional connection and interaction of landscape symbols and the symbolization of landscape. 3) The promotional mechanism of tourism industrial development in Huangdu Dong Cultural Village connects the internal and external driving forces including resident cultural consciousness, tourism market demand, and government policy support to landscape symbol spatial production, then realizes the integration of modern multi-life demand functions and Dong folk culture, also promotes the spatial production of landscape symbols. Aiming for the activation and sustainable development of traditional villages, this study explored the process and mechanism of landscape symbol spatial production in order to provide scientific and practical references for the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese traditional culture.

  • Reviews
    SUN Bindong, FU Yu, GU Honghuan
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2023, 42(9): 1841-1852. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.09.014

    The urban life cycle theory was proposed by Hall and Van den Berg and colleagues based on European urban research. According to the changes in the population of the urban core and rings, the urban spatial evolution process is divided into four stages: Urbanization, suburbanization, deurbanization, and reurbanization. The stage alternation and specific stages described by the theory have also been confirmed by subsequent empirical research, and this theory has been widely applied in identifying and studying the stages of urban development. However, this theory has been criticized and questioned as follows: 1) The process of urban development cannot be measured solely from a single population change perspective; 2) There are heterogeneities in urban development under different backgrounds; 3) The division of stages is unreasonable and debatable; and 4) Urban space does not always evolve linearly in a unidirectional order. In this context, many studies have made revisions, supplements, and improvements to this theory, and some new theories have been proposed, but there is still room for breakthroughs and development. Future breakthroughs can be made in the following aspects: 1) Incorporate marginal cities, shrinking cities, gentrification, and new urban phenomena into research of the post crisis and post pandemic period, and consider changes in people's lifestyle and thinking, socioeconomic background, and so on, to expand the applicability of the theory; 2) Refine urban types to identify the diversity of evolution, and conduct comparative research to identify urban life cycle models that are suitable for China; 3) Incorporate population structure and integrate the data of population size, age, and household and socioeconomic characteristics to enhance the depth of urban spatial analysis; and 4) Increase research on the migration of residents and businesses, expand micro-scale perspectives, and integrate multiple urban systems to enhance the comprehensiveness of urban spatial evolution theory.

  • Special Column: Rural hollowing governance and revitalization
    REN Guoping, ZHENG Huikai, YIN Gang, LIU Liming
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(3): 531-544. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.03.009

    Flow elements are not only an important force for the temporal differentiation and reorganization of rural vulnerability, but also an important perspective in the study of urban and rural reconstruction. By constructing a social-ecological system vulnerability evaluation indicator system of "sensitivity-adaptability", the dynamic change characteristics of vulnerability and the impact of flow factors of 184 administrative villages in Qingpu District of Shanghai Municipality from 1998 to 2018 were analyzed by means of sequential polygonal area method, spatial exploration and analysis, and fixed effect spatial error model. The results show that: 1) During the study period, the social-ecological system vulnerability of the district increased from 0.521 to 0.622, and the vulnerability level increased from low grade to medium grade. The spatio-temporal patterns show that vulnerability first increased and then decreased, and was high in the east and low in the west. 2) The relative length of the social-ecological system vulnerability temporal path movement in the district showed a trend of gradual decline from the central region to the surrounding areas from 1998 to 2018. The mobility curvature of the vulnerability time path was relatively small, showing the spatial pattern of high in the north and south and low in the central area, and the flow index for vulnerability spatio-temporal transition was 0.509, indicating that the spatial agglomeration structure had relatively high transfer activity in this region. 3) Population flow had become the leading factor for enhancing vulnerability and the coefficient of impact was 0.022, and capital flow and commercial flow were the key to reducing vulnerability. The effect of outflow on vulnerability was generally higher than on inflow, and the most significant effect of population outflow on vulnerability increase was 0.018, while the vulnerability reduction capacity of capital inflow was -0.009. "Sensitivity synergy-adaptive trade off" had become the dominant mode of flow factor impact on vulnerability in Qingpu District. The flow factors had a more significant impact on economic sensitivity and economic adaptability.

  • Special Column: Rural hollowing governance and revitalization
    QIAO Jiajun, XIAO Jie
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(3): 417-433. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.03.001

    The coordinated development of rural revitalization and new urbanization is related to the sustainable development of regions. By constructing the evaluation index system of rural revitalization and new urbanization, we used the coupled coordination degree model and geographic detector to quantitatively analyzed the spatial differentiation characteristics of rural revitalization and new urbanization used the coupled coordination degree model and geographic detector to levels in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the spatial and temporal change patterns of coupling and coordination from 2010 to 2020, and examined their driving mechanisms. The results show that: 1) The spatial distribution characteristics of rural revitalization and new urbanization levels in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River were clearly differentiated. The spatial distribution pattern of new urbanization level basically remained stable, and provincial capitals were the main clusters of high-value areas. 2) The spatial heterogeneity of the coupling degree types was large, dominated by the improving stage, while the coupling and coordination degree was mainly on the verge of disorder, concentrated in areas such as Longdong and northern Shaanxi, and the relative development type as a whole was dominated by the new urbanization lagging type. 3) The change of coupled and coordinated development pattern of rural revitalization and new urbanization is the result of mutual constraints and joint action of various factors, with population, income, consumption, and investment being the main driving forces. Therefore, in the context of consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty eradication and promoting high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, it is important to study the coupled and coordinated development of rural revitalization and new urbanization to promote the construction of urbanization with counties as the carrier and to realize the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas.

  • Articles
    ZHOU Jun, YU Congyang, MENG Guangwen, WANG Shufang, ZHANG Ningyue, MA Xiangxue
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(4): 700-708. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.04.006

    Overseas agricultural industry parks are an innovative way of China's overseas investment, and land use is one of the core issues in its development. Agricultural industry park A is a national-level overseas industrial park that has passed the assessment of the Ministry of Commerce. Its land use and cooperative planting model have important reference value for other overseas parks and the high-quality development of the Belt and Road region. Using interviews, field research, and evolutionary game methods and taking agricultural industry park A as an example, this study conducted a game analysis on the behavioral motivations of park and local farmers in the process of land acquisition, and explored the optimal land use model of overseas agricultural industry parks. The research found that: 1) Plantations have a large demand for land, high investment cost, long payback cycle, and high risk and sensitivity of investment. 2) Park A has formed a development model of "multiple plantations in one park, cooperative development, and construction of the whole industrial chain". 3) Land acquisition game between the park and the local farmers and the Indonesian government's special policies for plantations combined to form a cooperative planting land use model of 80% self-operated land and 20% jointly-operated land. 4) Land acquisition in Indonesia is difficult and affected by many factors, such as private land ownership, difficulties in determining land ownership, and Western neo-colonialism public opinion. The development experience of park A in the exploration of overseas land investment has certain reference value for the land acquisition and use of Chinese agricultural industry parks in other countries with private ownership of land.

  • Geographer
    TANG Maolin, LIU Kai, SUN Jun
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(3): 603-615. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.03.014

    Ron Johnston is a world-renowned human geographer and historian of geographic thought. In his fruitful life, he made unparalleled contribution to the discipline of human geography. His contribution is not only reflected in his empirical research in urban geography, political geography, and political science with many academic journal papers, but also in his pioneering research on the history of geographical thought and quantitative research methods, and classic works such as Geography and Geographers. He published more than 40 academic monographs, including Philosophy and Human Geography, On Human Geography, and Putting Votes into Their Place: Geography and Elections in Great Britain, edited or coedited more than 40 academic monographs, including A Dictionary of Human Geography, The Future of Geography, and A Century of British Geography. As a university faculty, teaching is one of the three academic works. Johnston acted as course instructor for undergraduate courses such as Urban Geography, Urbanization, Internal Structure of the City, Philosophy and Methodology of Human Geography, Political Geography, State and Economic Restructuring, Contemporary Economic and Political Issues, Geography of Election, Research Methods, Multivariate Statistical Analysis, The State and the Environment, An Introduction to Geography, and for graduate courses, including Urban Geography, Urban Internal Structure, and Multivariate Statistics/Computing. As an advisor, Johnston supervised 47 graduate students. He wrote several important textbooks, including Multivariate Statistical Analysis in Geography: A Primer on the General Linear Model and Geography of Elections. He also set us a good example in terms of academic service. He coedited both Progress in Human Geography and Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space for 25 years (1979-2004), and served on countless editorial boards. He also often served as an external reviewer, participating in the evaluation of dissertations, research fund proposals, professional training programs, book manuscripts, RAE (research assessment exercise), REF (research excellence framework), professional title promotion, and so on. He published many book reviews to build healthy academic community culture. Ron Johnston's diligence, persistence, kindness, and warm and academic service spirit will always inspire us to move forward. We, as Chinese counterparts, can learn a lot from Ron Johnston as a professor and a member of the academic community.

  • Articles
    XIE Bo, TAN Xuyuan
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(1): 110-124. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.01.008

    A series of problems caused by rapid urbanization have a negative impact on the mental health of residents. As an essential health intervention, green spaces facilitate resident exposure to the natural environment and relieve mental stress. However, existing studies mainly use cross-sectional data, making it difficult to reveal the causal relationship between green space and mental health. In addition, few studies focused on the differences in the mental health effect of green space among different social groups. Therefore, we used a natural experiment approach to explore the impact of a large-scale greenway intervention—the East Lake Greenway in Wuhan, China—on residents' mental health. We collected data from the health effect questionnaires in 2016 and 2019 (before and after the intervention) among residents living around the greenway, used the difference-in-differences model to explore the causal relationship between green space intervention and residents' mental health changes, and combined stratified analysis to reveal differences in the causal effect of green space on mental health across various social groups. The results show that: 1) The green space intervention significantly promoted the improvement of mental health for the experimental group. 2) The causal effect of green space intervention on residents' mental health was not significantly different among groups with different gender and education levels, but there were significant differences among groups with different occupations and income levels, indicating that the greenspace intervention has significantly improved the mental health of the unemployed, low-income, and low-middle income groups. Overall, the construction of large green spaces can effectively improve the mental health of surrounding residents, especially for disadvantaged groups such as the unemployed and low-income groups. Green space interventions are critical for improving the mental health of residents and alleviating inequalities in mental health benefits due to differences in socioeconomic status.

  • Articles
    WANG Yan, XIU Chunliang
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2023, 42(7): 1272-1284. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.07.004

    With the development of 5G, AI, and the Internet, we have entered the era of video socialization. Based on the Douyin (TikTok) data, this study analyzed the characteristics of the urban network in China with the help of the social network analysis method, and explored the influencing factors by using the optimal parameters-based geographical detector. The results show that: 1) The unbalanced distribution pattern of different types of cities based on local and non-local connections is basically consistent with the long-standing east-west gap, and the city grade based on the Douyin (TikTok) social media platform does not completely follow the traditional city grade system. 2) The overall network showed a triangular pyramid structure, which is very similar to the development pattern of urban agglomerations in the 14th Five-Year Plan. 3) The main influencing factors of urban network centrality in China are the level of economic development and information development, and the secondary influencing factors are the level of logistics development and tourism development. 4) Due to the varied stages of development, different regions showed obvious spatial differences. The southwestern region was more affected by the level of logistics development, the northeastern region was more affected by the level of tourism development, and the northwestern region was more affected by the level of economic development.

  • Reviews
    XU Gang, WANG De, YAN Longxu, SHEN Zhengping
    PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY. 2024, 43(1): 179-189. https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2024.01.013

    Since the 1980s, the study of systems of cities has seen two major breakthroughs, that is, the shift from the national scale to the global scale, and the shift from the central place theory to a network perspective. Starting in the late 1990s, world/global city research began to merge with the network perspective, resulting in a growing interest in the study of world city networks. World city network (WCN) research uses a network perspective to study cross-border inter-city relations on the global scale. A considerable amount of theoretical and empirical research on world city networks has emerged over the past two decades. The purpose of this article was to critically review recent advances and the main limitations of theories and methods underpinning current world city network research. The article outlined the global context that gives rise to the fundamental restructuring of world city systems. The essential tenets of the main theories pertaining to world city network research were then discussed, including the hierarchy of world cities, world city hypothesis, global city, and "space of flows". The specifications, key assumptions, and applications of the interlocking network model (INM) were presented, followed by a discussion of several social network analysis (SNA) tools commonly used in world city network research. Finally, the article discussed the limitations of existing theories and methodology and, on that basis, highlighted several areas that deserve further research.