The Network Features and Configuration Analysis of Cross-regional Sports Collaboration in the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-city Economic Circle

This paper takes 410 inter-government collaborative policy texts and inter-government agreements in the sports field of the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-city Economic Circle between 2016 to 2022 as samples to analyze the data related to the measurement of point degree, proximity and intermediary centrality of each node city (participating subject) in sports collaborative governance in the economic circle from two perspectives: overall network and individual network, thus making a thorough examination on the features and configuration of the cross-regional sports collaborative network between Chengdu and Chongqing. The study shows that the cross-regional sports collaboration in the Chengdu-Chongqing twin-city Economic Circle is on the rise, but there is still a big gap compared with other city clusters such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Yangtze River Delta agglomerations. The inter-government sports collaboration in between Chengdu and Chongqing is mainly carried out in Chengdu, Deyang, Meishan and Ziyang, leaving other cities largely neglected. The joint conference system for sports between Chengdu and Chongqing is still in the exploratory stage, and it is necessary to strengthen the system construction and cross-regional collaboration. Currently, the cross-regional collaboration in sports has not yet formed a large scale, and there is still a need to further clarify the rights and responsibilities between governments in the future, create necessary conditions to facilitate the cross-regional collaboration through appropriate policies and interventions, so as to promote the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-city Economic Circle.