Spatial Structure Of Shenyang In The Perspective Of Space Of Flows

In the1990s, Manuel Castells proposed the theory of space of flows, when the internetwas in the ascendant. The theory tries to reveal the organization logic of contemporarysociety system and engages to explain the transformation process of social productionactivities in the information age in a new perspective. As the theory emphasizes, the worldwe live becomes more affected by a variety of flows including information flows, peopleflows, logistics flows, knowledge flows, culture flows, technology flows and other kind offlows. All the flows are the key links to construct kinds of networks which build up ourworld. In a word, the world which the space of flows theory described is challenging ourtraditional knowledge about the space. The practice of the theory begins in the study interms of cities and regions. The most famous research teams in this discipline are the GaWCand the Polynet, the former aims at delineating the world city networks, the latter dedicatesto analyze the poly-centralization pattern of European urban agglomerations. Acknowledgeto the perspective of space of flows, they have both obtained new findings andunderstandings of cities or regions, as well as have deepened the spatial interaction theoryin geography. Following the research routes of the two teams, this thesis investigates thespatial structure of Shenyang city according to the theory of space of flows. There would bethree significances of this research: First, previous studies in terms of space of flows havefocused on the global and regional scale, while hardly on urban scale, and this study wouldbe a supplement. Second, previous studies have mainly paid their attentions on developedand post-industrialized regions or countries, but less attention on developing regions andindustrialized countries. Therefore, we need a case study around these counties to enrich thestudies on theory of space of flows, and collect more evidence to support this new theory.The last, with the support of the revitalization of northeast old industrial base and thenational new industrialization synthetically reform testing area, Shenyang has madeconsiderable progress in economy with the population and the construction land area havegrown quickly. That means Shenyang has to face the risk of “big city” disease. In this thesis,we will analyze the structure of industrial space, social space and physical space inShenyang in the perspective of space of flows, and then promote better and more feasiblesuggestions on urban development.This thesis consists of7chapters:Chapter1is the introduction part. The chapter begins with the background and thepromotion of the research question. The following are literature reviews on the study ofspace of flows and urban spatial structure. Based on these reviews, one may realize thenecessity and practice significance of studying the spatial structure of Shenyang in theperspective of space of flows. The next part mainly introduces the background informationof Shenyang, such as social, economic and urban development, as well as designates the spatial extent of study area. In addition, this chapter introduces the research methodsincluding graph theory, alternative parametric method, minimum spanning tree, minimumconvex hull, spatial-interaction model and the Gaussian based2SFCA method. The last partof chapter1is the introduction of the research framework.Chapter2is the theoretical discussion on urban spatial structure from the perspectiveof space of flows. In some certain sense, the space of flows is based on network, withoutwhich the flows could not generate or exist. Hence the chapter discusses the networkcharacteristics in urban spatial structure to demonstrate the existence of space of flows exist,and then describes the specific performance of flows as a result. Besides, the chapter pointout what is the difference between the perspective of space of flows and troditionalperspectives. Chapter2also proposed the “starting points” of this research: the observationand measurement of flows, delineation of spatial network structure, analysis of dominantfactors and discussion of key issues. Notably, considering the scale factor and socialdevelopment stages factor, it is unwise to copy the foreign experience directly. We need tomake the theory localized, and combine with the present situation of China.Chapter3is the analysis of industrial spatial structure of Shenyang. First, according tothe “starting points” proposed in the chapter2, the flows performance, network structure,dominant factors and some key problems of the industry space was discussed. Then, theprocess of the industry agglomeration of Shenyang, which is one of the key issues in theindustrial spatial structure, was analyzed. In addition, as an in depth analysis, theorganization networks of Top100enterprises were investigated. As a result,8agglomeration areas of headquarters were recognized by using minimum spanning treemethod, and the spatial organization networks was delineated by using alternativeparametric method.Chapter4is the analysis of social space structure of Shenyang. The flows in the socialspace structure include invisible flows and visible flows. Invisible flows mainly include theinformation flows, emotion flows and knowledge flows. Visible flows mainly includepeople flows and material flows. In common sense, each person is the node of socialnetworks. But when discussing the social spatial structure, people groups are usually paidmore attentions. Hence in this thesis, each people group is considered as node of the socialnetwork structure. The elite class is the dominant factor, and the key problems contain thespatial mismatching of job provider and seekers, job accessibility, residential segregationand micro location. The job accessibility of Shenyang was analyzed by utilizing theGaussian2SFCA method, and the provider-seeker job association network wasestablished..Chapter5is the analysis of physical space structure of Shenyang. Physical space is thesupporter and material performance of the industrial space and the social space. Therefore,the flows belong to the industry space or the social space can also generate and exist in thephysical space. The ideal urban spatial structure in the space of flows is polycentric networkstructure. The node of this network structure is spatial growth unit, and the spatial growth units who have the control ability are the network structure’s dominant factor. The keyproblems in physical space structure from the perspective of space of flows are polycentriccharacteristic and urban expansion. The polycentric characteristic of Shenyang wasinvestigated from the perspective of space of flows and polycentric network structure.Though some evidence have proved that Shenyang have some polycentric characteristic, butthe polycentric network structure is merely in embryo. Besides, the process of urbanexpansion of Shenyang since1995was described by interpretation of Landsat TM/ETM+data, and the dynamic mechanism of this process was discussed from the perspective ofspace of flows.In Chapter6, the flows-dominated feature and the multi-dimensional structure of urbanspatial organization were revealed. Besides, the problems in urban spatial structure ofShenyang were figured out, and six corresponding optimization measures were proposed.The measures are as follows:①Vigorously promote the construction of ShenyangEconomic Zone.②Combined with the thinking of polycentric network structure, performunified planning and layout for the whole city to eliminate administrative division economy.③Transfer the industry and population synergistically.④Cultivate the function of Hunnandistrict as a sub-center of Shenyang.⑤Accelerate the development of producer services toimprove the industrial structure system.⑥Strengthen the construction of transportation,communication and other infrastructure related to “flows”, and eliminate the barriers against“flows”.Chapter7is the final part of this thesis. In this part, the contributions, shortcomingsand prospects of this study were presented. The main contributions of this study reflect inobtaining a new understanding of the urban spatial structure of Shenyang through a novelperspective of space of flows, and the drawing of the conclusion that Shenyang presentspolycentric network structure in embryo.