Agglomeration and Convergence of Regional Development Process in Developed Regions
摘要
Agglomeration and convergence of regional development is an important component of development geography. Since the 1980s, global regional development has shown obvious agglomeration characteristics, particularly in developed areas, and has not only attracted more industries, especially high-tech industry settlement and development, resulting in high-tech industry and economic agglomeration, but also attracted more competent technical personnel, forming a talent agglomeration. China’s Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster, Yangtze River Delta city cluster, and Pearl River Delta city cluster have developed rapidly over the past 30 years. The economic share of the three major city clusters had exceeded 45% by 2021, and the absorption capacity of the economic growth of the three regions has reached a record high. However, the agglomeration of regional development is not contrary to the balanced development of the region. Many developed regions adopted the development theory of “agglomeration convergence,” which has become an important future direction of regional development in China’s developed regions. Agglomeration and convergence theory of regional development in developed areas is currently a topic of great interest in regional development research. Since the beginning of the last century, geographers have studied the phenomenon of regional agglomeration and convergence and explored the process of industrial agglomeration. With the rise of the economic activity in large enterprises and transnational corporations, more attention is being paid to the internal structure of enterprises, which loosens the research on development agglomeration and convergence. Then, in the late 1970s, with economic globalization, geographers quickly revived the study of development agglomeration and convergence. In the 1980s, research attention turned to “new economic geography,” which laid a good theoretical foundation for the study of agglomeration and convergence of development geography. The objectives of this chapter are as follows: 1. To elaborate the agglomeration process of different elements in the regional development process of developed areas from the perspectives of urban space, industry, economy, and innovative talents. 2. To analyze the convergence characteristics of different elements. 3. To reveal the main driving mechanism of the agglomeration and convergence process of different elements of urban space, industry, economy, and innovative talents.