Repositioning the rural in city-regionalism through a locally based functional analysis

ABSTRACT

Worldwide, city-regions have been considered as locomotors to promote regional and national competitiveness. This normative view has continuously highlighted the significant role of a city within and beyond a region, as it tends to overlook the nature of that city-region, which has been shaped by both its urban and rural settings. To reposition the rural in city-regionalism, this research uses the city-regional policy of Taiwan and its cultural capital, Tainan City, as a case study to reveal the significance that a rural industry can have within and beyond a city-region through adopting a locally based, multiplex city-regional functional approach.

KEYWORDS:

• city-region
• rural–urban interrelationships
• functional analysis
• rural industry
• Taiwan

JEL:

• O2
• Q18
• R58

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author thanks Dr De-Jung Chen for her insightful discussion, Yi-Chen Pan and Sheng-Lun Lin for their assistance in fieldwork and geographical information system (GIS) data processing, and the four anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions and careful reading of the manuscript. Those errors that inevitably remain are entirely the author’s own responsibility.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The research is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, Republic of China [grant numbers MOST 107-2410-H-006-095 and MOST 106-2410-H-006-091].