Evaluation of social network conservation in historical areas of mountainous towns in Chongqing, China

Over recent decades, historical areas conservation has become an important strategy to improve urban competitiveness in the global economy. As shown in existing studies that the conservation of historical areas mainly focused on the physical environment, there is still room for the non-physical study, and researches on the social network conservation in mountainous historical areas are particularly insufficient. Therefore, this paper aims to establish an evaluation system which is helpful for the social network conservation of historical areas. The evaluation system is based on social network analysis and the information of social relationships gathered in field surveys using a specifically designed questionnaire method in four mountainous towns in Chongqing, China. And it was analyzed from three perspectives, i.e., by the basic statistical properties, condensate subgroup, and centrality. Then five analysis indicators were conceived, including density, lambda set, k-core, degree centrality, and betweenness centrality. The analysis results demonstrate that the social networks of the four towns show different indicators, which are respectively relevant to completeness degree, edge-relatedness level, local stability, structural balance, and concentrated trend of social relationships. Results from SNA modeling indicate that neighborhood residents of historical areas who have more stable and healthier social relationships are relatively not easily be destroyed. The results also illustrate that the social networks structure is influenced by the terrain, form, and function of historical areas, and the change of historical areas is caused by “individual-family-society”. Finally, the strategies guiding the social network conservation are put forward from two aspects. These findings suggest that the conservation and management of social network and aborigines in historical areas should be emphasized to increase the collective benefits and vitality.