Difference Between Chinese and Western Studies on Urban Networks and Its Reflection

From the perspectives of research scales, methods and focus, this paper analyzes the difference between Chinese and western studies on urban networks and proposes some future research agendas. By teasing out the developments of both Chinese and western studies on urban networks, this paper finds that whereas western studies focus more on world city networks and polycentric urban regions, Chinese studies attach greater attention to national and regional urban networks. Inspired by the progress in studies on world city networks, Chinese studies have also explored some new types of intercity linkages and ways of analyzing urban networks. However, there is still room for Chinese studies on regional urban networks to learn from recent developments of western studies on polycentric urban regions in terms of research methods and focus. Future studies could emphasize the analysis of urban networks from different spatial scales, the mechanism behind network formation and evolution and the external economies of urban networks. 关键词: 城市网络;空间尺度;研究方法;研究重点