Research On Transformation Of The Social Spatial Structure Of Chongqing Main City Zone

The urban socio-spatial structure study gradually became all important researchtopic of Western urban geography after World War II, the rise of Chicago school makesthe study reached its peak in the1920s, which has been the focus researchfield of city geography In the later century. Western countries have formed a relativelycomplete theoretical system based on a large number of empirical cases of urbansocio-spatial structure. By contrast, theoretical framework of urban social geography inChina has been in the initial research stage because of the lack of empirical casestudies and the short-term development of less than30years, there is still a long way toestablish theoretical system with Chinese characteristics.With the development of economic globalization and the deepening of reform andopening up, China is undergoing profound transformation of the social and economicsystem. While the rapid development of market economy, the rapid process ofurbanization and industrialization, great changes have taken place in the urbanphysical space, urban internal socio-spatial structure is also experiencingdramatic reconstruction at the same time. Therefore, under the guidance of the theoryof urban social geography and the reference of Western experience, the urbansocio-spatial structure study of China Cities has become an urgent task for the sake ofproviding a scientific basis for decision-making of urban planning and governmentdepartments, and constructing related academic disciplines. At present, the lack oftypical empirical case study in the western region in China is extremely serious sincelate1980s, involving only a case study of Xi’an city. Based on this background, thispaper taking Chongqing main city zone as the research object, study the formation andevolution of urban socio-spatial structure in aspects of both theory and empirical.There are seven chapters in this thesis, which is conducted mainly in three aspects.The first part of this article (chapter1,2,3) is theory research part, it summarizes theresearch background and research object, expatiates the analytic theory and relatedresearch method of urban socio-spatial structure, reviews the development processof urban socio-spatial primary theories in different periods, and specifically introducesthe classic case with the method of the factorial ecology, all this lays a solid theoreticalbasis for the empirical study. The second part of this article (chapter4,5) is the casestudy part, based on the Sixth National Population Census data, it uses the factorial ecological analysis and cluster analysis to explore the main factors, social areas and thesocial spatial structure of Chongqing in2010. On this basis, compares and analyzes theevolution of urban socio-spatial structure in Chongqing from2000to2010. The thirdpart (Chapter6,7) is theoretical summary part, explores for the forming and evolutionmechanism of the urban socio-spatial structure in a decade, at last, summarizesinvestigative conclusion and points out the question that need more studies．The research results show that, there are five main factors of socio-spatial structurein Chongqing main city zone in2010, including occupational status and educationallevel, living conditions, retired people and agricultural population, householdcomposition, the intellectual class and minority population respectively. The social areascan be divided into six categories: the overcrowding old city zone with high-density,intellectuals and minorities areas, the area with high-quality and high-incomepopulation, suburban area with general working-class, outskirts area with the mixed ofurban population and rural population, the agricultural population areas withlow-density. The social spatial structure model of Chongqing main city zone in2010hasobvious “concentric circles, fan-shaped, multi-core” feature.