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  • THEORY DEVELOPMENT
    CHANG Xiao-dong, WANG Shi-jun, FENG Zhang-xian, HAO Fei-long, GUAN Hao-ming, YANG Zhi-peng, LI Ke
    HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. 2025, 40(5): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2025.05.001
    This paper analyzes the theoretical connotation and complex characteristics of common prosperity, constructs the geographical mechanism framework of common prosperity, and reviews the regional practice process of China 's common prosperity, with a view to contributing geography to the Chinese-style modernization of the connotation of common prosperity. The study found that: 1) 'Development' and 'equilibrium' are the theoretical basis of common prosperity. 2) Common prosperity has four complex characteristics: comprehensive and factor trade-off, regional and multi-scale governance, dynamic and time correlation, spatial and non-spatial multi-agent. 3) Since the reform and opening up, China 's regional practice of common prosperity has shown remarkable performance in regions, urban-rural areas, and groups. 4) Geography has broad application prospects in promoting the process of common prosperity, which can promote the realization of the goal of common prosperity through strategic interactions with ecological civilization, territorial space planning, and digital economy.
  • THEORY DEVELOPMENT
    NIU Cai-cheng, ZHANG Wen-jia
    HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. 2025, 40(5): 12-22,60. https://doi.org/10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2025.05.002
    Behavioral geography explores the interactions between human behavior and geographical environments from a micro-scale perspective, providing a foundation for understanding micro-level humanenvironment relations. However, traditional behavioral geography paradigms face significant limitations when analyzing complex human-environment interactions, particularly in the context of China’s new urbanization phase that emphasizes human-centered and sustainable development. This paper reviews the current development challenges in behavioral geography and examines the theoretical background and disciplinary influence of the relational turn, attempting to reconstruct the theoretical and analytical framework of behavioral geography from a relational perspective. We identify three key challenges: the predominant focus on static relationships between individuals and environment while overlooking social networks and interactions; the disconnect between macro and micro-scale analyses; and the limitations of traditional data collection methods in capturing complex behavioral patterns. The proposed framework emphasizes placing individuals within the macro-structural context of social relationships, establishing a cross-scale research paradigm that bridges micro-individual behaviors and macro-geographical phenomena through network analysis. By investigating micro-scale individual spatiotemporal behaviors from a network lens, this approach reveals broader societal patterns that conventional micro-scale approaches might overlook.
  • SPECIAL COLUMN ON CONSUMPTION GEOGRAPHY OF THE DIGITAL AGE
    ZHANG Min, ZHAO Yi-xuan
    HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. 2025, 40(5): 33-42. https://doi.org/10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2025.05.004
    Driven by digital media technology and game industry since the 21st century, games have been expanding in space, time and social dimensions, and the boundaries between them and people's daily life have become increasingly blurred. This article borrows the concept of gamification, based on the post-modern authenticity, five dimensions of game involvement/ immersion and five aspects of user experience, to construct a 'multidimensional mixed authenticity model'. Taking the RPG of Chengdu Kuanzhai Alley as an example, a qualitative research method is adopted to interpret the complexity of local authenticity experience from the dimensions of material, temporal, spatial, self, and relationship through interviews, participatory observation, online text collection, and other methods. Research has shown that: 1) The gamification of historical and cultural districts gives participants a mixed perception of subjective and objective with authenticity and nonauthenticity; 2) Gamification harmonizes the perception of authenticity by constructing interactions between people and places: in the material and temporal dimensions, the spatialization of game narrative promotes the rationalization of non-realistic elements in the game world; In the dimensions of self and relationship, the localization of game settings enhances the fault tolerance of non-real elements in the real world; And ultimately connected the perception of authenticity between the real world and the gaming world through embodied practice in the spatial dimension.
  • SPECIAL COLUMN ON CONSUMPTION GEOGRAPHY OF THE DIGITAL AGE
    LIU Chen
    HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. 2025, 40(5): 43-51,100. https://doi.org/10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2025.05.005
    As a part of the cross-platform consumption, disposing of 'useless' things in the digitalized secondhand market has blurred the boundaries between public (recommerce platform) and private domains (WeChat groups and the neighbourhood-based/same-city exchanges organised by individuals) of consumption and between online and offline experiences. In this context, this article focuses on how people practice the 'virtue of thrift' by selling their 'useless' things via secondhand trading platforms and social media and the social and environmental impacts of reselling used items at various online and offline sites, drawing on a mixed methods approach. It argues that convenient online platforms and platform-mediated reselling practices have created new connections between online and offline spaces for secondhand sales, generating new digital and online cultures. The findings illustrated that through formal and informal practices of selling things, these platforms have been transformed into virtual spaces that promote a trustworthy way of consumption. In addition, these secondhand shopping experiences are intimately intertwined with the gamification systems of platforms that aim to cultivate ordinary consumers' practices of caring for the environment and distant others. To elaborate, the key findings of this research demonstrate that: 1) the digitalisation of second-hand culture has generated a feminised and youthified online community and a self-/QR codedependent offline recycle community; 2) the digitalisation of second hand culture has created localised digital culture and economy life via the fixed pattern of posts, online/offline communication styles and datafied geolocation; 3) second hand exchange cannot be automatically linked to greener consumption that benefits the environment and vulnerable people at distance.
  • SPECIAL COLUMN ON CONSUMPTION GEOGRAPHY OF THE DIGITAL AGE
    WANG Fan, WANG Ming-feng, ZHANG Ying-hao, KUANG Ai-ping, LIN Juan
    HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. 2025, 40(5): 52-60. https://doi.org/10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2025.05.006
    Taking Jiangbeixiazhu Village in Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province as a case area, the study uses semistructured interviews and participant observation methods to research various actors and explores the formation process of the live streaming commerce village through qualitative analysis. Further more, the influencing factors and formation mechanisms for live streaming commerce are also explored. The main conclusions showed that: Jiangbeixiazhu Village's live streaming commerce is transformed from social commerce, such as microbusiness, with the continuity of industrial evolution. In the development of village e-commerce industry, the change of new technology of live streaming commerce builds a window of opportunity for village development, the embedding of institutional environment and its synergistic evolution with e-commerce technology become the supporting elements for the development of live streaming commerce, and flexible supply chain rooted in the local area becomes the key propelling force for the transformation of village industry.
  • SPECIAL COLUMN ON CONSUMPTION GEOGRAPHY OF THE DIGITAL AGE
    MA Ling, LIN Xin-yu, ZUO Xiao-shan, WANG Hai-feng, CHEN Xiao-liang
    HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. 2025, 40(5): 61-69. https://doi.org/10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2025.05.007
    This paper takes the food and snack streets of Guangzhou, a historically commercial city with deep cultural roots, and Changsha, a rapidly rising 'internet-famous' city characterized by strong platform presence and digital branding, as comparative case studies. Employing a multi-method qualitative approach—including participatory observation, in-depth interviews with vendors and consumers, and discourse analysis of social media content—this research explores the spatial production, cultural significance, and everyday experience of contemporary 'hustle and bustle' consumption spaces in China. The findings indicate that: 1) Food and snack streets serve as unique urban experiential zones where 'hustle and bustle' is socially and spatially produced through the interplay of food practices, spatial materialities, and behavioral performances. 2) Under the influence of media mechanisms, these originally localized consumption spaces are reimagined as digital spectacles, becoming viewable, shareable, and commentable within online platforms. 3) The consumption experience is no longer limited to on-site participation; rather, it extends into digital spheres where users accumulate social capital through sharing, liking, and commenting.
  • ECONOMY
    CHEN Hong-ji, ZENG Gang, CAO Xian-zhong, CHEN Peng-xin, WAN Yuan-yuan, WANG Jia-wei
    HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. 2025, 40(5): 78-89. https://doi.org/10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2025.05.009
    Exploring new drivers of economic growth in the process of Chinese modernization is a responsibility that economic geography faces in this era. This paper theoretically elucidates how the new triad of technology, data, and relationship drives economic growth. By employing geographical detectors, we empirically demonstrate the transformative trend where these new elements are replacing the traditional triplet. The study reveals several key findings: 1) With their advantages of incrementality, cumulativeness, and infinity, the new triplet can continuously fuel economic growth. They are gradually supplanting the core position held by the traditional triplet of land, labor, and capital in the economic growth driving force system, emerging as the new impetus for China's economic growth in the new era. 2) As a hidden and incremental factor, relationship resources play a crucial driving role in regional economic growth. They facilitate the interaction and reorganization of regional resources, providing convenient connection channels for the flow of other resource elements. 3) The economic driving effects of the new and old triplets exhibit significant spatial heterogeneity.
  • REGION
    WANG Shu-fang, YU Qing-qing, WANG Qian-wen, YE Shuai, WANG Ting
    HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. 2025, 40(5): 112-120,192. https://doi.org/10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2025.05.012
    In the implementation of the Belt and Road initiative, overseas industrial parks have strengthened connectivity between China and neighboring countries. This paper constructs a theoretical framework from the Five Connectivities perspective based on spatial interaction theory, exploring the path of overseas industrial parks in boosting the Belt and Road connectivity by case study on the China-Europe Trade and Logistics Park. The research reveals: 1) Promoting the connectivity requires national complementarity, infrastructure accessibility, and risk mitigation. 2) The complementary advantages,multi-dimensional cooperation,efficient connectivity,and risk prevention between China and Hungary in the field of trade and logistics have laid a solid foundation for the China-Europe Trade and Logistics Park to fulfill its connectivity role. The study offers a "synergy + optimization + digital empowerment" model for upgrading China's overseas trade and logistics parks.