A tale of two industrial zones: A geopolitical economy of differential development in Ulsan, South Korea, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Journal
Environment and Planning A
Journal Volume
50
Journal Issue
2
Pages
457-473
Date Issued
2018
Author(s)
Abstract
Much scholarship on East Asian development has sidelined the crucial role of geopolitics by insisting that wars such as the Vietnam War had limited effects on industrial development and economic growth patterns. We find such arguments unpersuasive, and also unduly reductionist. The Vietnam War, in particular, had unambiguously powerful effects on industrial development in South Korea; but even in cases where the direct effects of war were somewhat less spectacular, such as Taiwan, the reasons for the differences were themselves deeply geopolitical and expressive of decision-making processes centered on the Vietnam War. In this paper, we explore the differential effects of such geopolitical decision-making by contrasting the development trajectories of the Ulsan and Kaohsiung industrial zones during the war period. We show, in addition, that the subsequent development of industrial projects in South Korea and Taiwan has continued to bear some of the marks of Vietnam War-era geopolitical economy. © 2016, © The Author(s) 2016.
Subjects
Geopolitical economy; industrial development; Kaohsiung; Ulsan; Vietnam War
SDGs
Other Subjects
decision making; geopolitics; industrial development; industrial district; planning history; political economy; urban development; urban history; urban planning; war; Kaohsiung; South Korea; Taiwan; Ulsan [South Korea]; Ulsan [Ulsan (ADS)]
Type
journal article