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CONCEPTUALIZING REGION FROM A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PERSPECTIVE: RESEARCH PROGRESS AND IMPLICATIONS |
CHEN Pin-yu, LI Lu-qi, KONG Xiang |
School of Urban and Regional Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China |
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Abstract 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.
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Received: 20 March 2019
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