Globalization and the Sustainability of Cities in the Asia Pacific Region

In this volume, scholars from around the region analyze the impacts of globalization on cities in the Asia Pacific region. This collection forms a useful, comprehensive, and ambitious study, focusing on the region's specific urban concerns and on broader theoretical issues surrounding social and environmental conditions in major metropolitan centers. The first part of the book examines globalization, foreign direct investment, international migration, and the question of cities and their changing patterns and meanings. Each chapter provides a broad set of dynamics that cuts across the world and finds particular instantiations in the Asia Pacific Region. The second part focuses on particular types of cities. First among these is the post industrial capital exporting city, with Tokyo, Seoul, and Taipei as examples. The second is the borderless or entrepôt city, citing Hong Kong and Singapore, whose special status as city-states has allowed a unique type of growth. The industrial city is exemplified by chapters on Shanghai, Jabotabek, and Bangkok, cities that have experienced very high globalization driven growth but also have become highly polluted environments, in sharp contrast with Singapore and the central area of Hong Kong. The final section focuses on amenity cities. Sydney and Vancouver are the two cases examined. These chapters demonstrate how environmental awareness can be part of urban growth and provide evidence that globalization is not promoting urban environmental and social sustainability.

Fu-chen Lo is the former deputy director of the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies, Tokyo. He is the Taipei economic and cultural representative to Japan. Peter J. Marcotullio is a fellow and Urban Programme manager at the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies, Tokyo.