Study On The Competence In Agglomeration Of Small Towns From The View Of Behavioral Geography

The competence in agglomeration is the internal motivation of the development of smalltowns. It mainly refers to the attraction and influence of small towns in the rural areas at theaspects of economy, capital, population, technology, etc. The competence in agglomeration ofsmall towns reflects the social-economic multi-relations between a small town and its regionalareas. Through this research, not only the development status of small towns but alsodeveloping regular pattern of small towns will be crystal clear. So it will provide a reference fora better urban planning. This article defines the concept of the competence in agglomeration ofsmall towns from the view of behavioral geography, and concludes that the competence inagglomeration of small towns contains the population, commerce and trade, industryrespectively. Furthermore, drawing the conclusion of the factors that reveals the competence inagglomeration of small towns are the local population, the floating population and the townshipentrepreneurs.Covering the town of Liajiaxiang in Northern Zhejiang Province, the town of Zhouxiang inMiddle Zhejiang and the town of Xincheng in Southern Zhejiang Province, based on the socialsurvey data of2003and2012,the article analyses the migratory behavior, consumption behaviorand decision-making behavior of three factors revealing the competence in agglomeration ofsmall towns collectively. Therefore, arriving at the following conclusion that the time-spatialcharacteristics of population aggregation, commerce and trade aggregation and industrialaggregation of small towns:(1) In the perspective of time dimension, the competence in population agglomeration ofsmall towns has declined, which is mainly due to the increasing competence in aggregation ofcounty. This is most obviously shown via the analysis of local population. On the spatialdimension, the town of Zhouxiang has revealed the strongest competence in agglomeration ofthe population, while the competence of the other two towns has been limited by that of thecounties.(2) Time has seen a stable development of the competence agglomeration in commerceand trade in small towns, which outstandingly embodied as surpassing the central city as themajor supplier of the household electric appliances. However, the advantage of small towns asthe supplier of daily goods is still slim compared with that of the counties, which is particularly evident at the analysis of the floating population. Small towns have gradually lost its function asthe supplier of agricultural products. As for the spatial dimension, there is no visible differencebetween the competence in commerce and trade agglomeration of the three sample towns.(3) In time dimension, the competence in industry agglomeration of small towns hasslightly decreased, for this competence has been impacted by both the counties (county-levelcities) and the central cities. In space dimension, the advantage of industrial agglomeration ofZhouxiang and Xincheng have been be substituted by county towns. Lijiaxiang has been centralcities.To sum up, this article analyses the four factors influencing the evolutional progress ofcompetence in agglomeration of small towns from the aspects of location, policy, and economy,infrastructure construction, based on the evolutional features of competence in agglomeration ofsmall towns.