社会地图研究综述与展望

A review of social atlas research

用地图方法研究社会空间已有较长历史,在不同的研究背景下形成了多种研究模式。近年来,大数据的出现和空间信息可视化技术的发展,不仅为社会地图的广泛应用提供了更多数据和方法支撑,也为社会空间的再认识提供了新的契机和可能。本文在对面向社会空间研究的国内外社会地图运用成果进行系统梳理的基础上,将社会地图的研究应用归纳为要素呈现、问题解释和理论验证3个阶段,并对其具体应用内容、方法和数据形式进行了综述,总结为统计图、点值图、网格图、密度图等四种类型,并就社会地图在中国社会空间研究中的应用可能性及其方向进行了讨论和展望。

Studying urban social space by means of maps has a long history and diverse patterns of research have developed in different contexts. In recent years, along with the rapid development of GIS technology and Big Data, social data are becoming increasingly diversified and accurate, which offers the possibility for rerecognizing social spaces. This article examines the research of social atlas in China and abroad since the 1900 s with regard to cartographic organization and methods and data, aiming for providing some guidance for future studies of social atlas in China. The map-based social research and applications evolved from the initial purpose of comprehensive description to thematic interpretation, and theoretical verification. With regard to cartographic method, the four main types are cartogram map, grid map, dot map, and density map. This article illustrates the effectiveness of social atlas study and reviews its applications in China. It stresses that social atlas, as an efficient method to present sociospatial relations, is able to describe the complicated spatial features of social elements,which is significant for understanding the social reality of a city under transition. However, research of social atlas in China is still in need of further development and greater attentions should be paid to such study in the future.