Abstract：Based on theories of famous scholars in western countries and some influential scientific periodicals, the paper discusses the connotation and research of social-cultural transforming in social geography, and especially pays far more attention to the theory and contents and research directions of the "new" social geography.The social-cultural transforming of human geography means culture would not be the only basis of cultural geography any more, while society would not be the exclusive topic of social geography. They could not make separated chapters as one of the elements of human geography respectively. Through the angle of social-cultural transforming, the author takes the "new" human geography as an exploring social science. Its nature of social-cultural space offers an approach to other social sciences to explore their connotation, and it also shows the direction and content of space expanding for them.The process of social-cultural transforming in human geography indicates not only the course of subject recombining and research content of new human geography, but also the process of how social geography and other branch subjects intercross. Secondly, the author tries to generalize the research content, structure and aim of "new" social geography, that is too say, the comprehensive theories and recent development of "social space structure". For example, the theory of modernization of social-cultural patterns and the modes of multi-structure of social space includes four theories. Thirdly, the new mutual research directions of new social geography and other branch subjects of "new" human geography, as well as the relative content and research structures, have been discussed in this article. While new social geography is exploring social space structure and its system, it must take regions as a main subject. Moreover, a city is one kind of social space structure dominated by regions. There are two main research tendencies:one is study on urban social structure and spatial process, and the other is the research on social behavioral modes and urban social space structure. Therefore, the basic theory of "new" social geography with blurrier and blurrier subject borders is the theoretical basis of analyzing and discussing problems in other branch subjects of hum an geography.
王兴中. 社会地理学社会—文化转型的内涵与研究前沿方向[J]. 人文地理, 2004, 19(1): 2-8.
WANG Xing-zhong. CONNOTATION AND RESEARCH OF SOCIAL-CULTURAL TRANSFORMING IN SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, 2004, 19(1): 2-8.
