Xingjian Liu
Biographic Data
| ID | 3718878 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Xingjian Liu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Xingjian |
| FAMILY NAME | Liu |
| SIGNATURE | LIU X |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Hong Kong |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4158-3655 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 59 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 230 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 59 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Urban technological catch-up in post-reform China amidst centralized resource constraints: The case of biotechnology in Guangzhou
Amid rapid changes in geopolitical contexts and technological conditions, recent studies on technological catch-up have increasingly shifted their focus from neoliberal international cooperation to domestic state restructuring. In the context of post-reform China, while the pivotal role of the state in facilitating technological innovation has been widely recognized, much of the existing literature has placed emphasis on entrepreneurial local sta…
Exploring cooperative and competitive relations in a Chinese intercity innovation network
While the relevance of intercity networks for innovation has long been highlighted in the literature, how such interactions may constitute both competition and cooperation between cities is less researched. This paper compares potential intercity competitive and cooperative relations in co-patent activities between Chinese cities. The results point to different patterns of competition and cooperation, especially regarding differentiated relevance…
The relationship between green land use and urban innovation: A multiscalar robustness check
Transport network changes and varying socioeconomic effects across China's Yangtze River Delta
Newly constructed transport infrastructure may have varying socioeconomic effects across cities and regions. This study employs a spatial equilibrium model to examine how the development of expressways and high-speed rails (HSRs) may induce changes in employed residents, housing rents, and consumer surplus within China's Yangtze River Delta region. Empirical findings indicate limited effects of transport infrastructure in reducing disparities, wh…
Politicizing the polycentric urban region: Bridge connection negotiations in the Pearl River Delta, China
This study extends the literature on polycentric urban regions through a situated account of the politicized nature of polycentric city-regional development. This is achieved through an analysis of the uneven development of bridge connections within the Pearl River Delta, China. By analysing the region’s polycentric development from the prism of the politics of transport connections and by viewing bridge alignment negotiations as government-led e…
Governing polycentric urban regions
Widely recognized as an empirical reality, an important analytical framework and a normative goal for territorial development policies, polycentric urban regions (PURs) are the subject of concerted international interest among those charged with planning and governing cities and regions. And yet, why does so much research on cities and regions not really engage with the PUR concept? With the aim of renewing debates surrounding the governance of P…
Governing an Airport Region in China: The Case of Ezhou Huahu Airport
Airport-related development raises important city-regional planning and governance issues. The paper examines the development of a new Chinese airport and associated changes in nearby cities. Ezhou Huahu Airport was initiated by one of China's largest delivery and logistics companies. The analysis focuses on the development patterns, growing visions, and changing governance around the airport as well as how the provincial government plays a cruci…
Delineating functional regions from road networks: The case of South Korea
We apply a percolation method to South Korea’s road networks and identify major urban clusters. The results show that Korea has developed a highly mono-centric spatial structure, in which the Seoul Metropolitan Area expands to northern Chungnam, far beyond the limits conventionally assumed. A percolation threshold of 1080 m is critical in delineating Korea’s functional regions, and the results at this threshold show great similarity to flow-based…
Regional integration in the Horn of Africa through the lens of inter-city connectivity
Urban challenges are increasingly framed in the context of broader objectives of socio-economic development and macro-regional evolutions. Cities and the myriad networks in which they are embedded have thus been placed at the center of regional integration agendas. This paper benchmarks contemporary regional integration levels in the Horn of Africa by examining its cities' connectivities in transport networks. To this end, we specify a composite …
Defining ‘centres’ in analyses of polycentric urban regions: The case of the Yangtze River Delta
The analysis of ‘polycentric urban regions’ (PURs) crucially depends on the operational definition of their constituent centres. We extend an insight into this issue by exploring how analyses of the level of intra- and inter-city polycentricity in the Yangtze River Delta, China, are contingent upon the identification and territorial delineation of its centres. The results help to specify more clearly PUR measurement procedures, and provide furthe…
Polycentric urban regions: Conceptualization, identification and implications
This special issue offers a cross-section of state-of-the-art research into ‘polycentric urban regions’: regions characterized by the presence of multiple, more-or-less proximate, centres where there is balanced development among these centres. With the literature increasingly transcending the focus on paradigmatic examples, the papers in this special issue concentrate on three fundamental and complementary questions: How can polycentric urban re…
Revisiting entrepreneurial governance in China’s urban redevelopment: A case from Wuhan
The unprecedented scale and varied forms of urban redevelopment in China provide an experimental field for understanding the transformation of urban governance. Noting that existing studies have often focused on coastal or developed Chinese cities, this study examines urban redevelopment in Wuhan, an inland city. We use the Erqi Riverfront Business District (RBD) redevelopment project as a case to examine the evolving entrepreneurial governance i…
Exploring the geography of urban comprehensive development in mainland Chinese cities
Measuring polycentric urban development: The importance of accurately determining the ‘balance’ between ‘centers’
In recent years, much research has been devoted to developing appropriate analytical frameworks to capture polycentric urban development (PUD). In a recent contribution to this journal, Bartosiewicz and Marcińczak (2020) present what is arguably the most comprehensive, comparative review to date of the degree to which different analytical frameworks produce consistent results. The purpose of this research note is to show why we believe parts of B…
The spatial distribution of employment around major Chinese airports
Using urban networks to gain new insight into old questions: Community, economy, bureaucracy
This special issue of the Journal of Urban Affairs brings together a series of 10 papers that illustrate the range of ways that networks can be used to better understand cities and communities. They employ a wide range of network methods, in a diverse sample of places, at different scales, to answer thorny questions in urban studies. However, together they highlight how network approaches can shed new light on three broad areas of urban inquiry: …
Nylon's Pre-Eminence: The Permeability of World Regions in Contemporary Globalization
In this paper we provide a detailed geographical analysis of the role of the New York-London (NYLON) connection in the world city network. We find that its pre-eminence is much greater and much more diverse than previously considered. Our analysis draws on a data collection of the worldwide office networks of producer services firms across cities in 2018, and applies a purposeful combination of principal components analysis and network analysis t…
Assessing airport ground access by public transport in Chinese cities
This article assesses airport ground access by public transport in China. Recent literature has highlighted the economic, environmental and social significance of airport ground access. Existing studies on airport ground access have predominately centred on North America and Europe and, to date, limited attempts have been made to assess the emerging Chinese market. Studies of urban and transport geography have detailed the shifting air connectivi…
Regional Development
This entry seeks to review the main theoretical approaches to understanding regional development, with attention paid to the convergence–divergence debate and to policy implications. Several major regional development theories are discussed, including neoclassical growth and trade theories, endogenous growth theories, Keynesian theories, theories of structural changes, and new economic geography.
Polycentric urban development and economic productivity in China: A multiscalar analysis
‘Urban polycentricity’ has become both a conceptual framework capturing emerging empirical realities and a spatial planning vision adopted in cities across Europe, USA, and, recently, also China. Despite the blossoming academic literature on polycentricity, only limited attempts have been made to explore whether and how polycentric urban development at different spatial scales affects the urban economy. In this paper, we empirically analyse wheth…
The shifting position of the Journal of Transport Geography in ‘transport geography research’: A bibliometric analysis
Characterizing broken links on national and local expressways in Chinese city-regions
While massive resources have been invested in China to improve intercity connectivity and boost economic growth, many short segments of planned but unfinished expressways exist in China’s city-regions. Such broken or missing links have been observed in Europe, the United States and, more recently, China. This study provides an exploratory analysis of broken links in both national and local expressways in China. Specifically, it develops a procedu…
How did urban polycentricity and dispersion affect economic productivity? A case study of 306 Chinese cities
Measuring spatial disparity in accessibility with a multi-mode method based on park green spaces classification in Wuhan, China
Polycentric urban development in China: A multi-scale analysis
This article reports a multi-scale analysis of polycentric urban development in 22 Chinese city-regions. Using fine-grained population data, our analysis contrasts polycentric development patterns at multiple geographical scales. We present a typology of Chinese city-regions based on both (1) their inter-city polycentricity and (2) the intra-city polycentricity of the individual cities that comprise these urban regions. Overall, we find only limi…
How block density and typology affect urban vitality: An exploratory analysis in Shenzhen, China
Recent urban transformations in China have led to critical reflections on the low-quality urban expansion in the previous decades and called for the making of vital and lively urban places. To date, limited research has been devoted to empirically testing the relationship between urban design, urban morphology, and urban vitality in Chinese cities. This paper employs new urban data and analytical methods and explores the relationship between urba…
Mapping producer services networks in mainland Chinese cities
We analyse the geographies of urban networks created by leading producer services (PS) firms in China. Because of the national regulation of the Chinese state-led economy and the location strategies of global advanced producer services (APS) firms, the geography of global APS in China as examined by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) cannot be studied as a subnetwork of GaWC’s global network, but needs an empirical study b…
Spatio-temporal disparity between demand and supply of park green space service in urban area of Wuhan from 2000 to 2014
Restructuring rural settlements based on subjective well-being (SWB): A case study in Hubei province, central China
Revisiting entrepreneurial governance in China’s urban redevelopment: A case from Wuhan
The unprecedented scale and varied forms of urban redevelopment in China provide an experimental field for understanding the transformation of urban governance. Noting that existing studies have often focused on coastal or developed Chinese cities, this study examines urban redevelopment in Wuhan, an inland city. We use the Erqi Riverfront Business District (RBD) redevelopment project as a case to examine the evolving entrepreneurial governance i…
The evolving structure of the Southeast Asian air transport network through the lens of complex networks, 1979–2012
Exploring financial centre networks through inter-urban collaboration in high-end financial transactions in China
This study employs social network analysis to investigate financial networks in China through collaboration between advanced producer services firms in initial public offerings. The results reveal that Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai have strategically dominant network positions, and that Beijing–Shenzhen is the most influential city dyad. Cities’ positions are explained by the advantages of both spatial and institutional proximity, defined by arm…
Nylon's Pre-Eminence: The Permeability of World Regions in Contemporary Globalization
In this paper we provide a detailed geographical analysis of the role of the New York-London (NYLON) connection in the world city network. We find that its pre-eminence is much greater and much more diverse than previously considered. Our analysis draws on a data collection of the worldwide office networks of producer services firms across cities in 2018, and applies a purposeful combination of principal components analysis and network analysis t…
Research Note—A Robustness Assessment of Global City Network Connectivity Rankings
This study reports the results of simulation experiments designed to assess the robustness of Globalization and World Cities research network (GaWC) network connectivity rankings under different scenarios of systematic bias in the service values data matrix. The results indicate the city rankings to be reasonably robust
Regional geographies of intercity corporate networks: The use of exponential random graph models to assess regional network‐formation
Understanding urban China with open data
A solid understanding of urbanizing China – the world’s largest and most rapidly transforming urban society – calls for improved urban data provision and analysis. This paper therefore looks at major technological, social–cultural, and institutional challenges of understanding urban China with open data, and showcases our attempt at understanding Chinese cities with open urban data. Through our showcases, we hope to demonstrate the usefulness of …
Spatial Inequality in the Southeast Asian Intercity Transport Network
Spatial inequality in transport access is both the driver and outcome of rising economic inequality in Southeast Asia. Unlike many regional disparity studies that focus on national economic indicators, this paper takes an urban network approach to assess the spatial inequality in Southeast Asian intercity transport network. We analyze urban connectivity in intercity road, rail, and air networks for a total of 47 Southeast Asian cities. Spatial in…
A Stochastic Actor-Based Modelling of the Evolution of an Intercity Corporate Network
We adopt a stochastic actor-based modelling framework to present a longitudinal analysis of an intercity corporate network formed by 53 globalised advanced producer service firms across 107 cities for three different time points in the period 2000-10. Our longitudinal framework allows us to investigate the different processes underlying firm networks' dynamics. The observed network changes are explained by a combination of exogenous city characte…
Using urban networks to gain new insight into old questions: Community, economy, bureaucracy
This special issue of the Journal of Urban Affairs brings together a series of 10 papers that illustrate the range of ways that networks can be used to better understand cities and communities. They employ a wide range of network methods, in a diverse sample of places, at different scales, to answer thorny questions in urban studies. However, together they highlight how network approaches can shed new light on three broad areas of urban inquiry: …
Characterizing broken links on national and local expressways in Chinese city-regions
While massive resources have been invested in China to improve intercity connectivity and boost economic growth, many short segments of planned but unfinished expressways exist in China’s city-regions. Such broken or missing links have been observed in Europe, the United States and, more recently, China. This study provides an exploratory analysis of broken links in both national and local expressways in China. Specifically, it develops a procedu…
Cities As Networks within Networks of Cities: The Evolution of the City/Firm‐Duality in the World City Network, 2000–2010
We explore the temporal evolution of cities and firms (i.e. both modes) in a two‐mode intercity corporate network formed by 50 leading advanced producer service firms across 154 cities for the years 2000 and 2010. Drawing upon one‐mode network projection and three network centralities, we assess the shifting positions of individual cities and firms in the one‐mode intercity and interfirm networks. Major findings include: (1) the intercity network…
Transport network backbone extraction: A comparison of techniques
The geography of Weibo
Exploring the co-evolution of the geographies of air transport aviation and corporate networks
Featured Graphic. How Mixed is Beijing, China? A Visual Exploration of Mixed Land Use
The combination of a legacy of socialist urban planning and the more recently established market economy in Beijing, China, is likely to create a mismatch between urban land-use plans and actual land use. Before China’s economic reforms of 1978, Beijing’s landscape reflected a more egalitarian premise and was dominated by large parcels and single-purpose zoning. In contrast, the city’s recent economic success, as evidenced by mushrooming financia…
A Bibliometric Analysis of 20 Years of Globalization Research: 1990–2009
We present a bibliometric analysis of globalization research published during 1990–2009, based on three online library catalogues, the Science Citation Index, and the Social Science Citation Index databases. Our analysis summarizes major research patterns in globalization research and could serve as an alternative and potential guide for future research in this field. The volume of books and articles on globalization has exploded since the 1990s,…
Featured Graphic: GDP, Livability, Population, and Income Inequality of World Cities
In this graphic, we combine information on four different indicators to assess cities' social, economic, and environmental characteristics in a global context: 1) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita which reflects cities' economic competitiveness; 2) livability measures focusing on cities' social issues such as safety, education and health; 3) income inequality of the country that individual cities locate; and 4) urban populations.Based on th…
Transport network changes and varying socioeconomic effects across China's Yangtze River Delta
Newly constructed transport infrastructure may have varying socioeconomic effects across cities and regions. This study employs a spatial equilibrium model to examine how the development of expressways and high-speed rails (HSRs) may induce changes in employed residents, housing rents, and consumer surplus within China's Yangtze River Delta region. Empirical findings indicate limited effects of transport infrastructure in reducing disparities, wh…
City profile: Taipei
Early birds, night owls, and tireless/recurring itinerants: An exploratory analysis of extreme transit behaviors in Beijing, China
Research Note—A Robustness Assessment of Global City Network Connectivity Rankings
This study reports the results of simulation experiments designed to assess the robustness of Globalization and World Cities research network (GaWC) network connectivity rankings under different scenarios of systematic bias in the service values data matrix. The results indicate the city rankings to be reasonably robust
Featured Graphic: GDP, Livability, Population, and Income Inequality of World Cities
In this graphic, we combine information on four different indicators to assess cities' social, economic, and environmental characteristics in a global context: 1) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita which reflects cities' economic competitiveness; 2) livability measures focusing on cities' social issues such as safety, education and health; 3) income inequality of the country that individual cities locate; and 4) urban populations.Based on th…
Featured Graphic. City Networks in the United States: A Comparison of Four Models
A Bibliometric Analysis of 20 Years of Globalization Research: 1990–2009
We present a bibliometric analysis of globalization research published during 1990–2009, based on three online library catalogues, the Science Citation Index, and the Social Science Citation Index databases. Our analysis summarizes major research patterns in globalization research and could serve as an alternative and potential guide for future research in this field. The volume of books and articles on globalization has exploded since the 1990s,…
Analyzing urban networks through the lens of corporate networks: A critical review
Exploring the co-evolution of the geographies of air transport aviation and corporate networks
Featured Graphic. How Mixed is Beijing, China? A Visual Exploration of Mixed Land Use
The combination of a legacy of socialist urban planning and the more recently established market economy in Beijing, China, is likely to create a mismatch between urban land-use plans and actual land use. Before China’s economic reforms of 1978, Beijing’s landscape reflected a more egalitarian premise and was dominated by large parcels and single-purpose zoning. In contrast, the city’s recent economic success, as evidenced by mushrooming financia…
A Stochastic Actor-Based Modelling of the Evolution of an Intercity Corporate Network
We adopt a stochastic actor-based modelling framework to present a longitudinal analysis of an intercity corporate network formed by 53 globalised advanced producer service firms across 107 cities for three different time points in the period 2000-10. Our longitudinal framework allows us to investigate the different processes underlying firm networks' dynamics. The observed network changes are explained by a combination of exogenous city characte…
Featured Graphic. Mapping Shifting Hierarchical and Regional Tendencies in an Urban Network through Alluvial Diagrams
We employ alluvial diagrams (Rosvall and Bergstrom, 2010) to map the evolution of interweaving hierarchical and regional tendencies in the transnational urban networks created by globalizing producer services firms (Derudder et al., 2003; Taylor et al., 2012). We first applied a hierarchical cluster analysis to 139 leading cities for 2000, 2004 and 2010 respectively, whereby cities are grouped based on their portfolio of firms. In the alluvial di…
Thematic maps for land consolidation planning in Hubei Province, China
Land consolidation is the most effective land management approach to optimize land-use structure and improve the natural environment. This study aims to shed light on land consolidation planning processes in China, and to highlight the characteristics and contents of thematic maps in provincial-level planning. The study area, Hubei Province, has an area of 1,85,900 km2 and is located in Central China. The land consolidation potential, that is, th…
The connectivity of South Asian cities in infrastructure networks
This map summarizes information on the connectivity of 67 important South Asian cities concerning infrastructure networks. The map combines four information layers to reveal a city's overall stature in the region's infrastructure networks, i.e. rail, road, air, and information technology networks. Three dimensions of connectivity are shown: edge thickness reflecting tie strength between pairs of cities; node size reflecting a city's betweenness c…
Cities As Networks within Networks of Cities: The Evolution of the City/Firm‐Duality in the World City Network, 2000–2010
We explore the temporal evolution of cities and firms (i.e. both modes) in a two‐mode intercity corporate network formed by 50 leading advanced producer service firms across 154 cities for the years 2000 and 2010. Drawing upon one‐mode network projection and three network centralities, we assess the shifting positions of individual cities and firms in the one‐mode intercity and interfirm networks. Major findings include: (1) the intercity network…
Exploring the joint dynamics of intercity internet and corporate networks: A Stochastic Actor-Based Modelling Approach
In this article, I show one possible solution to synthesis dynamics in multiple intercity networks. I adopt a stochastic actor-based modelling approach to explore the co-evolution of an intercity corporate network of 57 globalized advanced producer service firms across 93 cities, and another intercity internet network between these 93 cities, for the period 2004-2010. Stochastic actor-based models (SABMs) help to connect interactions among cities…
Featured Graphic. Visualizing Urban Gastronomy in China
Featured Graphic. Mushrooming Jiedaos , Growing Cities: An Alternative Perspective on Urbanizing China
With more than 15 million new urban residents entering its cities every year, China is witnessing one of the greatest socioeconomic and environmental transformations in human history. In addition to these ongoing changes, urbanization in China often involves a significant political dimension, as the government would purposely accord city status to settlements, regardless of their developmental level: Largely rural settlements (eg, Zhen) could be …
Regional geographies of intercity corporate networks: The use of exponential random graph models to assess regional network‐formation
Understanding urban China with open data
A solid understanding of urbanizing China – the world’s largest and most rapidly transforming urban society – calls for improved urban data provision and analysis. This paper therefore looks at major technological, social–cultural, and institutional challenges of understanding urban China with open data, and showcases our attempt at understanding Chinese cities with open urban data. Through our showcases, we hope to demonstrate the usefulness of …
Mapping producer services networks in mainland Chinese cities
We analyse the geographies of urban networks created by leading producer services (PS) firms in China. Because of the national regulation of the Chinese state-led economy and the location strategies of global advanced producer services (APS) firms, the geography of global APS in China as examined by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) cannot be studied as a subnetwork of GaWC’s global network, but needs an empirical study b…
Visualizing urban and regional worlds: Power, Politics, and Practices
The geography of Weibo
Automated identification and characterization of parcels with OpenStreetMap and points of interest
Against the paucity of information on urban parcels in China, we propose a method to automatically identify and characterize parcels using OpenStreetMap (OSM) and points of interest (POI) data. Parcels are the basic spatial units for fine-scale urban modeling, urban studies, and spatial planning. Conventional methods for identification and characterization of parcels rely on remote sensing and field surveys, which are labor intensive and resource…
How polycentric is urban China and why? A case study of 318 cities
City profile: Taipei
Early birds, night owls, and tireless/recurring itinerants: An exploratory analysis of extreme transit behaviors in Beijing, China
Delineating urban functional areas with building-level social media data: A dynamic time warping (DTW) distance based k-medoids method
Geography (52 works) · Economic geography (38 works) · Regional science (33 works) · Computer Science (27 works) · China (25 works) · Economics (25 works) · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis (24 works) · Business (21 works) · Sociology (21 works) · Political science (17 works)