地理研究

GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH ›› 2009, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (2): 484-498.doi: 10.11821/yj2009020022

• Urban and Rural Studies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The urban social areas in Nanjing: Analysis of the data based on the Fifth National Population Census

XU Di1,2, WANG Zhu1, ZHU Xi-gang1, LI Wei2   

  1. 1. School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China;
    2. School of Geographic Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ85287-0104, U.S.A.
  • Received:2007-12-22 Revised:2008-06-17 Online:2009-03-25 Published:2009-03-25
  • Supported by:

    教育部国家建设高水平大学项目基金资助(2007100744)

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Abstract:

Urban socio-spatial structure in Western countries has been extensively analyzed since the 1940s. Shevky and Bell (1949) initiated social area analysis in the study of Los Angeles and San Francisco. In China, there have been many studies of the social structure of major cities using the Fifth National Population Census data at the subdistrict (jiedao) level recently. Chinese scholars carried out research in the cities of Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanchang and so on, but the research fruits of urban social areas on China's city are rather limited. This paper uses the factorial ecological analysis and cluster analysis (Ward's method) to explore the social spatial structure of Nanjing in 2000, based on the Fifth National Population Census data at the subdistrict (jiedao) level in Nanjing. The result reveals that major factors under consideration for the components of social structure in Nanjing include floating population, agriculture population, urban residential factor, educational degree and occupational status, as well as urban unemployed population factor. According to the factor scores in 2000, the city of Nanjing can be divided into six types of social areas: 1) higher socio-economic residential areas, located in the north part of the core area in Nanjing; 2) high population density, ordinary salary worker areas, located in the south part of the core area; 3) mixed areas of floating population and ordinary salary worker on city outskirts; 4) crowded floating population areas, located in the urban fringe; 5) outer subur-ban industrial areas; and 6) agricultural areas, located in the periphery area. The concept model of the urban social mosaic exhibits generally a zonal pattern with the synthesis of sector and zonal pattern. The inner ring-belt is the old core composed of the native residents. The middle ring-belt is transitional. The outer ring-belt is composed of the agricultural areas. We consider that the market-oriented reform, Nanjing urban planning, the history of the city development, and its physical geography are the main formation mechanism.

Key words: urban social structure, urban social areas, factorial ecology, Nanjing