Clark University

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY ISSUE: Vol. 83 No.4 October 2007

Economic Geography is an internationally peer-reviewed journal, committed to publishing the best theoretically-based empirical articles that deepen the understanding of significant economic geography issues around the world. Economic Geography is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by Clark University.

CONTENTS

Editorial

Remaking Economic Geography: Insights from East Asia
Henry Wai-chung Yeung, Page 339
Complete Article

Journal Articles

Recovering from Crisis: The Case of Thailand's Spatial Fix
Jim Glassman, Page 349
AbstractComplete Article

Gaining from Globalization? State Extraterritoriality and Domestic Economic Impacts--The Case of Singapore
Nicholas A. Phelps, Page 371
Abstract | Complete Article

Divergent Hybrid Capitalisms in China: Hong Kong and Taiwanese Electronics Clusters In Dongguan
Chun Yang, Page 395
Abstract | Complete Article

Restructuring Industrial Districts, Scaling Up Regional Development: A Study of the Wenzhou Model, China
Yehua Dennis Wei, Wangming Li, and Chunbin Wang, Page 421
Abstract | Complete Article

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BOOK REVIEWS

China's Urban Transition, by John Friedmann
Susan M. Walcott, Page 445
Read Book Review

Gender Divisions and Working Time in the New Economy: Changing Patterns of Work, Care and Public Policy in Europe and North America, by Diane Perrons, Colette Fagan, Linda McDowell, Kath Ray, and Kevin Ward
Valerie Preston, Page 447
Read Book Review

Governing Environmental Flows: Global Challenges to Social Theory, edited by Gert Spaargaren, Arthur P. J. Mol, and Frederick H. Buttel
Gavin Bridge, Page 449
Read Book Review

Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States, by John Soluri
Laura T. Raynolds, Page 451
Read Book Review

The Rise of Spanish Multinationals: European Business in the Global Economy, by Mauro F. Guill?n
Montserrat Pallares-Barbera, Page 453
Read Book Review

Wal-Mart World: The World's Biggest Corporation in the Global Economy, edited by Stanley D. Brunn
Neil M. Coe, Page 455
Read Book Review

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ABSTRACTS

Recovering from Crisis: The Case of Thailand's Spatial Fix, by Jim Glassman

Abstract: Although the Asian economic crisis has been the subject of numerous analyses, the varied and uneven processes by which different Asian countries have recovered from the crisis have received comparatively less attention. This article focuses on the process of recovery in Thailand. While the crisis and recovery both have international dimensions that go beyond individual nation-states, the case of Thailand can be used to analyze some of the forces that are at work in both the national and international contexts. Thailand's process of recovery can be analyzed by noting tensions and overlaps among different forms of spatial fix--those involving investment in Bangkok's built environment, those involving the geographic decentralization of investment to lower-cost production sites, and those involving the effort to expand exports. Each of these spatial fixes involves different accumulation strategies and, therefore, political coalitions. This situation suggests the centrality of social struggles over the appropriation of surplus to both crisis and recovery.

Key words: Thailand, economic crisis, spatial fix.

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Gaining from Globalization? State Extraterritoriality and Domestic Economic Impacts-- The Case of Singapore, by Nicholas A. Phelps

Abstract: States have authored elements of globalization--deploying strategies to exert themselves extraterritorially. Such extraterritorial dimensions of state strategy are intimately connected to economic interests--although the economic interests in question and the geographic manifestations of extraterritoriality have varied historically for individual nation-states and continue to vary among different nation-states. This article examines one important example of this phenomenon. The rapid industrialization of Singapore at a time of rapid international economic integration has created a unique degree of urgency, depth, and breadth among contemporary state strategies of extraterritoriality. Drawing upon original research on joint-venture industry and technology parks in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India, the article examines the extent and nature of economic benefits to the Singapore economy leveraged through this particular strategy of extraterritorialization. The modest scale of these benefits confirms both the limits of state strategies that are aimed at, and elite discourses regarding, "gaining from globalization."

Key words: extraterritoriality, economic benefits, multinational enterprise, Singapore.

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Divergent Hybrid Capitalisms in China: Hong Kong and Taiwanese Electronics Clusters In Dongguan, by Chun Yang

Abstract: This article explores the changing dynamics and organization of cross-border production by Hong Kong and Taiwanese electronics firms in China, on the basis of more than 40 semistructured interviews with firms from April 2005 to January 2007 in various towns of Dongguan, an emergent "global factory" in south China. Despite initial resemblances, Hong Kong and Taiwanese electronics clusters have adopted different approaches to organize their cross-border production since the late 1990s. Little systemic comparative analysis has been conducted on the causes. The divergent practices can be interpreted as differences in corporate strategies of parent and branch firms, industrial policies in Hong Kong and Taiwan, linkages with global leaders, and home-host interactions in response to the challenges of globalization. To tap into the domestic market of mainland China, Hong Kong companies have tended to become "domestic firms," while Taiwanese companies have become wholly foreign owned and have pursued a "pseudo-location" of suppliers of raw materials and components. The article concludes that more comparative studies are needed on divergent hybrid capitalisms that are driven by different sources of foreign direct investment in various host regions, so as to develop empirical insights into appropriate conceptual frameworks.

Key words: hybrid capitalisms, electronics clusters, business systems, global production networks, Hong Kong and Taiwanese investments, China.

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Restructuring Industrial Districts, Scaling Up Regional Development: A Study of the Wenzhou Model, China,by Yehua Dennis Wei, Wangming Li, and Chunbin Wang

Abstract: The Wenzhou Municipality in Zhejiang Province is spearheading China's marketization and development of private enterprises. Its successful development trajectory, centered on family-owned small businesses embedded in thick local institutions, resembles Marshallian industrial districts (MIDs). However, with China's changing institutional environment and intensifying competition, Wenzhou has been facing challenges. Since the late 1980s, Wenzhou has gone through two major rounds of restructuring (from family enterprises to shareholding cooperatives to shareholding enterprises), that have included four major types of strategic response: institutional change, technological upgrading, industrial diversification, and spatial restructuring. Firms in Wenzhou have gone through localization and delocalization, and locational choices reflect the dual destinations of globalizing cities and interior cities. The formation of new firms and clusters has been accompanied by mergers, acquisitions, and the emergence of multiregional enterprises (MREs), some of which have relocated their headquarters and specialized functions to metropolitan areas, especially Shanghai and Hangzhou. More recently, Wenzhou's growth has slowed, leading some to question the sustainability of the Wenzhou model. We argue that Wenzhou's development is in danger of regional lock-ins--relational, intergenerational, and structural. Wenzhou's experience challenges the orthodox concept of MIDs and calls for "scaling up" regional development.

Key words: Marshallian industrial district, regional lock-in, the Wenzhou Model, China.

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