多彩世界与中国启迪:主要发达国家近期经济地理学教材分析与思考

Diversified world and its inspiration:Review of the recent economic geography textbooks used in major advanced countries

教材在经济地理学学科发展中具有重要作用。为加强中国经济地理学教材建设,本文选择英国、美国、加拿大、俄罗斯、德国、法国、日本等国近期出版的13本教材,进行内容特点的定性和定量分析。结果表明:(1)所有教材均侧重于经济活动的不同空间维度分析,较少考虑经济活动与自然地理环境条件的关系;但近期显示出对能源和矿产资源利用、绿色发展问题的部分关注。(2)对学科理论和实际问题的权衡差别较大,除少数(4部)教材理论分析内容占重要地位外,多数(9部)以对近期世界和相关国家出现的重大且空间性明显的实际问题分析为主,同时注重其理论的解释。(3)面向英语国家使用的教材较多关注世界性问题和国际上代表性理论观点,其他教材在理论和实际问题分析中,注意突出本国经济地理学特色:俄罗斯经济地理学已转向社会经济地理学,德国在承继规范研究传统基础上突出关系经济地理学,法国关注世界经济地理多样性,日本关注城镇和乡村社区经济地理研究。受此启迪,中国特色经济地理学教材建设中,应注重把握中国经济地理学发展的背景特色和研究成果特色,坚持经济地理学的地理性,突出特殊政府体制下和特殊文化积淀下的经济地理机制,突出大国经济空间格局规律和经济增长与地理环境关系变化趋势总结。他国教材从实际问题分析入手激发吸引读者兴趣的做法,也可借鉴。

Textbooks have established as a fundamental sight in the development path of economic geography.In order to strengthen the construction of economic geography textbooks with Chinese characteristics,this paper selects 13 textbooks published since 2016 in the UK,USA,Canada,Russia,Germany,France,Japan and other countries to conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses of the content characteristics.The results show that:(1)The content of all textbooks focuses on the examination of different spatial dimensions of economic activities,while seldom considering the relationship between economic activities and natural geographical conditions;only recently it has paid partial attention to the utilization of energy and mineral resources and green development.(2)Except for a few(4 out of 13)textbooks,where theoretical analysis content occupies a large proportion of pages,most(9 of 13)textbooks mainly analyze recent practical problems in the world and the related countries,with special attention to those both having a significant impact on people’s social and economic life,and having obvious spatial difference.(3)Most textbooks,in the analysis of theoretical and practical problems,stress the characteristics of economic geography in the relevant country:the textbooks for English-speaking countries focus more on world issues and internationally representative theoretical viewpoints,Russian textbooks have transformed economic geography to socioeconomic geography,German ones emphasize relational economic geography on the basis of inheriting the normative research tradition,France’s focus on the diversity of world economic geography,and Japan’s stress the economic geography of urban and rural communities.Inspired by this research conclusion,we suggest the following in the construction of economic geography textbooks with Chinese characteristics:(1)Highlighting the background characteristics and research results of China’s economic geography development,(2)stressing the geographical nature of economic geography,(3)deepening the mechanism of economic geography under the specific government system and unique cultural accumulation,and(4)summarizing the laws of the spatial evolutional economic pattern of a large country and the changing trend of the relationship between economic growth and the geographical environment.The practice of attracting readers’interest from the analysis of practical problems in textbooks in other countries can also be used for reference.