Recent Evolution of Research on Industrial Heritage in Western Europe and China Based on Bibliometric Analysis

Jiazhen Zhang,Jeremy Cenci,Vincent Becue,Christos S Ioakimidis,Sesil Koutra

doi:10.3390/su12135348

Abstract

Using the CiteSpace software and bibliometric methods, with the core collection of the Web of Science (WoS) database as the data source, the development of industrial heritage research in China and Western countries since the 2006 Wuxi Proposal was analyzed. The study found that the latest quantitative changes in China and Western countries’ industrial heritage research have similar fluctuations. However, researchers and institutions in the two places are independent of each other, lacking in-depth cooperative research. Notwithstanding, comprehensive and holistic research needs to be strengthened. The research content in China mainly focuses on the issues of urban renewal, industrial heritage tourism and creative industries, whereas Western countries are dominated by heritage and community building industrial heritage, the exploration of tourism and the protection of industrial sites, post-industrial heritage protection, and new technology use. Finally, by comparing and analyzing the research status of the two regions, future research on industrial heritage in China and Western countries are encouraged.

Highlights

The concept of modern industry and its heritage find their “roots” in Western Europe
The research content in China mainly focuses on the issues of urban renewal, industrial heritage tourism and creative industries, whereas Western countries are dominated by heritage and community building industrial heritage, the exploration of tourism and the protection of industrial sites, post-industrial heritage protection, and new technology use
To ensure the integrity and accuracy of the data, the core collection of the Web of Science (WoS) database was taken as the basic data source, with “industrial heritage” as the subject word, the retrieval time was from the release of Wuxi Proposal, the interval is set from 2006 to 2019, and 312 articles were retrieved [11]

Summary

Introduction

The concept of modern industry and its heritage find their “roots” in Western Europe. With the saturation of the market and the increase in the cost of manufacturing, the industry gradually shifted to neighboring Western European countries, such as France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. In the middle of the twentieth century, with the decline and transformation of traditional industry, Western European countries entered the post-industrial era and began actions toward the protection of their industrial heritage [1,2,3]. During the twenty-firist century, the concept of industrial heritage was introduced to China from Western Europe [7]. Chinese academic interest in industrial heritage research has gradually increased and the scope of research has begun to expand and deepen, which has a significant role in promoting the research and protection of industrial heritage in China [8]

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Conclusion