Small towns shrinkage in the Jilin Province: A comparison between China and developed countries

Urban shrinkage is currently spreading at global level. At the same time, the scale of urban shrinkage is not limited to urban agglomerations, metropolitan areas, or big cities, but begins to expand to a vast number of small towns. Over the years, the characteristics, models, and mechanisms of shrinkage in large cities have attracted the attention of scholars; however, the problem of shrinkage in small towns has not been fully discussed. In China, small towns are located at the margins of cities and are the first part of the countryside; hence, they are the link and the bridge between urban and rural areas, and a space carrier to solve the diseases of big cities and for rural rejuvenation as a whole. However, in the process of rapid urbanization, some small towns have experienced urban shrinkage, mainly through a decline in township enterprises and the deterioration of the living environment, which has restricted their role in coordinating the spatial support of urban and rural development. Therefore, a correct understanding of the shrinkage of small towns has considerable theoretical and practical guiding significance. We focused on the towns of the Jilin Province as the research unit, and combined township population, economy, land use, and employment indices to establish an urban shrinkage index, identifying the status, spatial distribution, and influencing factors of small towns shrinkage in the Jilin Province. Moreover, we analyzed the similarities and differences of small towns shrinkage between the Jilin Province and developed countries. The results show that small towns shrinkage in the Jilin Province shares similar characteristics with developed countries, as well as important differences in aspects such as population migration, low-level industrial structure, and administrative division adjustments.当前，城市收缩现象已在全球范围内蔓延。与此同时，城市收缩的影响范围已不再局限于城市群、大都市区或大城市，而是开始向大量小城镇拓展。长期以来，大城市收缩的特征、模式与机制一直受到学者们的关注，但小城镇收缩问题尚未得到充分探讨。在我国，小城镇地处城市边缘地带，亦是乡村的前沿区域，因此它们是联结城乡的纽带与桥梁，也是破解大城市病、统筹推进乡村振兴的空间载体。然而在快速城镇化进程中，部分小城镇出现了城市收缩现象，主要表现为乡镇企业衰退与人居环境恶化，这制约了其统筹城乡发展空间支撑的功能发挥。因此，正确认识小城镇收缩问题具有重要的理论与实践指导意义。本研究以吉林省建制镇为研究单元，结合乡镇人口、经济、土地利用与就业等指标构建城市收缩指数，以此识别吉林省小城镇收缩的现状、空间分布特征及其影响因素。此外，本研究还对比分析了吉林省小城镇收缩与发达国家小城镇收缩的异同。研究结果表明，吉林省小城镇收缩既与发达国家存在共性特征，同时在人口流动、产业结构低端化以及行政区划调整等方面存在显著差异。