Regionalization in the Yangtze River Delta, China, from the perspective of inter-city daily mobility

Abstract

ABSTRACTRegionalization in the Yangtze River Delta, China, from the perspective of inter-city daily mobility. Regional Studies. This paper applies a community detection algorithm to the Yangtze River Delta’s (YRD) daily inter-city mobility network to produce an interaction-based regionalization, and then explores the processes underlying this regional (re-)production by comparing it with attribute-based regionalization. The results show that political boundaries and historical patterns of socio-economic integration are strikingly visible, and the effects of overlapping physical, economic, cultural and administrative spaces on regional integration are apparent. The authors conclude that both notions of ‘territory’ and ‘network’ come together as the YRD region is spatially configured, while ‘regional path dependence’ also seems to be relevant for understanding its relational formation.