State Transformation and State Space Restructuring: A Case Study of Kaohsiung Harbor-Region, Taiwan

This thesis explores the spatial development in the harbor-region of Kaohsiung that faces de-industrialization and re-development under state transformation in Taiwan after late 1980s. Different from Jessop and Brenner, the regulation approach, I adapt the arguments of scale and territorial politics that Cox and Park claim and propose a research framework to investigate state space restructuring under Taiwan developmental state transformation. The economic transformation of Taiwan developmental state forms the new government-business relationship and the new strategic selectivity－economic liberalization; The democratization leads the dialectics of scale and territorial politics, the emergence of tensions between central-local government and the inter-local competitions. Focus on state space restructuring, I claim the Kaohsiung Multi-functional Commerce and Trade Zone is leveled by the strategic space－Commerce and Trade Zone and the spatial strategy－urban regeneration. And then, focus on the process of spatial development of Kaohsiung harbor-region; I argue the limitations of Kaohsiung harbor-region are attributed to the cross-strait opposite relationship and the land-interest pursuit of privatized state-owned enterprises. Under that condition, the state space restructuring of Kaohsiung presents zoning policies (narrative state space), failed economic plans (integral state space) and representative state space (economic development discourses) with dialectics of scale politics and conflicts of the competitions between central institute and local government.