Asia Pacific
New Geographies of the Pacific Rim
The great processes reshaping our world today can be summed up by the term "globalisation". Together with the communications revolution and massive urbanisation, it is reshaping theorganisation of global space. It is illustrated by technological change, pronounced economic growth, the dominance of giant corporations, ever more open markets and universal consumption. Dramatic developments have occurred in Asia-Pacific trade, investment, labour movements and political cooperation, marked for example by APEC, a giant free-trade area designed to encompass about 60% of the world's population and half the world's economy.
But the processes also create social tension, political reaction and local resistance as a result of regional restructuring, widening regional disparities, the neglect of backward areas or imposed modernisation.
Asia Pacific: New Geographies of the Pacific Rim, written by leading scholars from the region, examines the extent to which Pacific Rim economies -- especially East Asia and Southeast Asia -- are increasingly integrated, and considers the economic, political and cultural forces at work. In the process, many "new geographies" are being created or reconstructed. At the same time, "the local-global dialectic" whereby local forces react to, negotiate with, resist or capitulate to global forces is examined.
Part I analyses globalisation and the emergence of sub-global regions, Part II the processes of change in Asia-Pacific, and Part III the national responses to globalisation. Part IV addresses local reactions to global forces: resistance, negotiatons or capitulation. Finally the editors enumerate the challenges to the region which centre on the crucial need to manage this era of globalisation so that sustainable societies can continue. This vast region needs careful management of globalisation, in which the forces of free trade and economic growth are the central determinants. For the time being, these forces seem to be in the ascendant.
Acknowledgments and Dedication
Abbreviations
The Contributors
1. Introduction / T.G. McGee and R.F. Watters
Part I. Globalisation and the Emergence of Sub-Global Regions: The Case of the Asia-Pacific
2. Regional Integration, Internationalisation and the New Geographies of the Pacific Rim / Dean Forbes
3. Globalisation, Urbanisation and the Emergence of Sub-Global Regions: A Case Study of the Asia-Pacific Region / T.G. McGee
4. Pacific Rim Trade and APEC / Ron Sandrey
5. Asia-Pacific Regional Integration and Human Rights / Christopher Tremewan
Part II. Processes of Change in the Asia-Pacific Region
6. Imitating the Rich: The Imperatives of Consumption / Harvey Franklin
7. An Agricultural Transition on the Pacific Rim: Explorations Toward a Model / R.D. Hill
8. Japan's Foreign Direct Investment in the Pacific Rim, 1985-1993 / Peter J. Rimmer
9. Effectiveness and Replicability of East Asian Industrial Policies / Robert Wade
10. Facing the Urban Environmental Challenge / Yok-shiu F. Lee
Part III. National Responses to Globalisation in the Asia-Pacific Region
11. The East Asian Growth Model: South Korean Experience / R.M. Auty
12. The Rise of the Yen, 'Hollowing Out' and Japan's Troubled Industries / David W. Edgington
13. China in the Year 2000: Prospects for the Late Reform Era / David S.G. Goodman
14. Taiwan's Economic Growth and Its Southward Policy in Asia / Gerald Chan
15. Population Change and Development in Indonesia / Graeme Hugo
Part IV. Sites of Resistance, Negotiation and Capitulation
16. Intrusion of Global Forces and Transformation of a Local Chineses Economy: The Experience of Dongguan / George Chu-sheng Lin
17. Ideological Abstractions, Bureaucratic Imperatives and Human Creativity: A Philippines Narrative / Warwick Armstrong
18. Ethnicity, Geography, History and Nationalism: A Future of Ethnic Strife for the Inland Border Peoples of Mainland Southeast Asia? / John McKinnon
19. Transforming the Periphery: The Case of Sarawak, Malaysia / Philip S. Morrison
20. Resource Extraction and the Postcolonial State in Solomon Islands / Ian Frazer
21. Conclusion / T.G. McGee and R.F. Watters
Selected Readings on the Asia-Pacific Index