Evolution Of Social Structure Of Historical And Cultural Villages And Towns In The Mountainous Southwest China

Since the promulgation of the ‘Protection of Cultural Relics Law' in 2002,a series of policy documents have been issued at the national and local levels to include historical and cultural villages and towns in the protection procedures of legally immovable cultural relics.In the process of coordinated urban and rural development,historical and cultural villages and towns(HCVTs)in the southwest China have undergone dramatic changes in economic and social development.The phenomenon in terms of the disorder of spatial patterns,the disappear of traditional courtyards,and the same of landmark nodes have emerged.Trends such as the disintegration of kinship,the indifference of neighborhood relationship,and the spread of industrial relationship have intensified.It has resulted in conflicts between evolution of space and social structure of HCVTs,which affected the conservation and development of HCVTs.Therefore,this thesis focused on the study of HCVTs via a perspective of ‘social structure'.It followed the bottom logic of ‘social structure?social economic activities?spatial demand?conservation and development' of HCVTs,and the top-level logic of ‘realistic problems ? theoretical framework ? empirical research ? practical application'.This thesis aims to discuss three research questions: 1)How to construct the framework of space analysis that integrates into the social structure of HCVTs in the southwest mountainous areas;2)How to explore the mechanism of ‘space-social structure' of the HCVTs in the southwest mountainous areas;and 3)How to guide the conservation and development of HCVTs in the southwest mountainous areas constructed by ‘space-social structure'.The main conclusions of this thesis are as follows:1.The argument of academic relationship of social structure in the space of HCVTs,the construction of theoretical framework for analysis of the space integrated into the social structure of HCVTs in the southwest mountainous areas.This thesis integrated ‘social structure' into the analysis of space of HCVTs,and constructs a theoretical framework for the mutual construction of ‘space-social structure'in HCVTs in southwest mountainous areas.Among them,the space refers to the social space in a broad sense,covering the land use,spatial pattern,and industrial form of HCVTs;the social structure refers to the perspective of social ties,which contains the structure of kinship,geographic relationship,and industry relationship.The functional mechanism means the social structure and space were mutually dependent and demanding.In addition,two functional models in terms of hollowness and commercialization of HCVTs in southwest mountainous areas were proposed.2.The finding of mechanism rule between space and social structure of HCVTs of the hollowing and commercialization in the southwest China,and reveals its mechanism characteristics of integrity and phased.This thesis firstly analyzed the realistic problems under the hollowing and commercialization of HCVTs in the southwest China.Then condenses the scientific problem of ‘Exploring the mechanism of the hollowing and commercialization of HCVTs in the southwest China'.Based on the theory framework,the research program of two types and three steps was constructed in the interdisciplinary fields of urban and rural planning and sociology.The thesis methods like spatial form analysis and social network analysis were used.Two types refer to hollowing and commercialization.Three steps mean spatial evolution,social structure evolution,and the operation mechanism.On the holistic levels,the evolution mechanism of the space and social structure of the hollowed HCVTs were different.The spatial decline was synchronized with the evolution of the social structure,but the main driving factors were not the collapse of structure of kinship and the geographical relationship.It derived from the decline of the regional functions and the loss of population of HCVTs,as same as the evolution of social structure.In contrast,the evolution of space and social structure of HCVTs of had significant effect mechanisms.In the evolution process of commercial HCVTs,where the blood structure collapsed and the industry structure diversified,the social and economic activities changed from family activities to commercial activities,and the space showed the evolution trend of land scale expansion,compact grouping and complex functions.The evolution of space has further promoted the formation of new social structures.On the stage levels,the interaction law of ‘space-social structure' for HCVTs of hollowing from 1978 to 2018 was dynamic.The space was adapted to the social structure from 1978 to 1998,which was reflected in the space adaptation under the structure of multi-generational family and the compact space under the structure of hometown relations.The separation of social structure was accompanied by the decay of space 1998-2008,which was reflected in the sparse space under the structure of intergenerational families and the decay of space under the structure of neighborhoods.The space was abandoned in the disintegration of social structure from 2008 to 2018,which was reflected in the abandonment of space under the structure of hollow family and the abandonment of space under isolated structure.However,the interaction law of‘space-social structure' for HCVTs of commercialization from 1978 to 2018 was phased.The space was adapted to the social structure from 1978 to 1998,which was reflected in the space adaptation under the structure of multi-generational family and the space matching under the structure of scattered industry.The space was expansed along with the diversity of social structure from 1998 to 2008,which was reflected in the compact space under the structure of nuclear family and the space division under the structure of industry groups.The space was abundanced in the mixed social structure from 2008 to2018,which was reflected in the expansion of space under the mixed family structure and the abundant space under the atomic industry structure.3.The conservation and development of HCVTs from the perspective of interaction of ‘space-social structure' in southwest mountainous areas.This thesis guides the conservation and development of HCVTs based on the mechanism of ‘space-social structure'.On the model of ‘space-social structure',this thesis divides the hollowing of HCVTs into three categories of spatial shrinkage,social structure shrinkage,and spatial structure shrinkage.Then corresponding strategies in terms of redefining the scope of conservation,enriching social structure and continuating space,and gathering social structure and shrinking space are proposed.Meanwhile,HCVTs of commercialization are divided into two types in terms of kinship structure shrinking and space replacement,industry structure spreading and space expansion.Intervention measures that the kinship structure maintains the historical space,the structure of kinship and industry guides the mixure of commercial and residential buildings are proposed.Overall,this thesis proposed three innovative points with the better universality.Firstly,a theoretical framework for space analysis of HCVTs integrating the social structure was formed,which expanded the theory of conservation of HCVTs.Secondly,the machanism rules between space and social structure of HCVTs for hollowing and commercialization of southwest China were summarized.It enhanced the cognition of the interaction between space and social structure of HCVTs in the southwest China.Finally,the methods of conservation and development of HCVTs in the southwest mountainous areas was summarized from the perspective of space and social structure.It innovated the conservation development and planning practice of HCVTs in mountains southwest China.