The New Face of Peri-Urbanization in East Asia: Modern Production Zones, Middle-Class Lifesytles, and Rising Expectations

ABSTRACT:

This article assesses the changing nature of peri-urbanization processes and outcomes in East Asia. East Asia has experienced industrially driven peri-urbanization to a greater extent than any other world region over the last four decades. While manufacturing remains a key driver, rapid economic and social transformations in the region are creating more diversified and complex “second-generation” peri-urban landscapes. Higher value economic activities, global transaction space (e.g., airport complexes), and new building technology are transforming modern production zones. New lifestyle trends of East Asia’s growing middle classes and improved transportation networks are fueling large capital investments into leisure and tourism facilities and residential communities, including second home residences, in these urban peripheries. Major social and environmental changes are also playing out in this highly contested space, driven by a complex mix of heightened consumer awareness, multinational investors, and the rising aspirations of local actors. The article concludes by identifying policy implications.

Mixed peri–urbanization west of Shanghai; SMEs to the left in Jingshan, Zhejiang Province, rural collective enterprises to the right in Xindai, Shanghai. Site is the future home of the Zhangjiang Hangzhou Bay High–Tech Park (2013).

Notes

Angel et al. provide forecasts based on 0% and 2% declines in density as well.

There is a vast difference between the percentage of people who will live in cities over 500,000 in East Asia (essentially Northeast Asia) and Southeast Asia. According to the UN data, only 31.2% of urbanites in East Asia will live in cities of less than 500,000; the corresponding proportion for Southeast Asia is 60.6%.

The numbers could be even higher in the case of China. According to the Deputy Director of the of China’s National Development Reform Commission, Han Jun, the latest urbanization forecasts call for an accelerated target of 60% by 2020, and 70%–75% by 2030 (Xinhua Daily, ). This means 300 million new rural-to-urban migrants by 2030. Urbanization rates are expected to level off by 2040, as China approaches developed country urbanization levels of 80%.

Over 40% of total office space in the United States is in outer suburban and exurban areas; edge cities account for 14%, the rest is dispersed (Lang & Knox, ).

What starts out as a satellite industrial platform anchored by large externally headquartered firms, which is seen as having an intermediate portability, often morphs over time and begins to take on characteristics of a hub-and-spoke district. See Markusen () for more details on the typologies.

Some scholars researching U.S. urban peripheries have called for a new framework based on decentered space, arguing that “most of the economic dynamism, cultural symbolism, and political ideology [emanates] from the polycentric periphery” (Knox, , p. 2). However, many of the peripheral components that make up America’s “new metropolis” (Lang & Knox, )—edge cities, urban realms, boomburgs, and micropolitan centers—are not as prevalent in East Asia. East Asian large cities continue to play a dominant role within their urban regions.

In some developed countries, particularly in Western Europe, there is a counter trend toward urban industry. However, this trend is small compared with global peri-urban–based dispersal of industry. A frequently cited counter example, illustrating the feasibility of locating advanced manufacturing in core urban locations, is the VW plant in Dresden. See images at VW Vortex ().

Some other high-end services are similarly spatially concentrated, for example, petroleum services, focused on a few square kilometers of land in cities such as Houston and Calgary.

For example, after the late 2010 flooding in Thailand, which devastated supply chains of Japanese MNCs, these corporations (with the support of the Japanese Government) insisted that flood protection walls be built around seven of the most important industrial parks in the central plains of Thailand.

Jurong International is involved in peri-urban industrial park construction and management (often de facto new industrial cities) in more than 139 metropolitan regions spread across 37 countries, including Brazil, Panama, Algeria, Libya, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Jordan.

This occurs in developed as well as developing countries. In the United States, urban analysts refer to households “driving until they qualify,” meaning they travel to exurban communities beyond the built-up edge of the city to find housing inexpensive enough relative to their income for a bank to approve a mortgage.

Think Orlando, Florida, United States, as an analogy.

The long commutes from CBDs has led to a counter trend toward urban airports, e.g., London City Airport, Toronto’s City Centre Airport, and the revitalization of Haneda Airport in Tokyo.

As a result, the National Environmental Board suspended 76 investment projects for 1 year and mandated an action plan on pollution mitigation in the Rayong Area from 2007–2011 (Bangkok Post, ; IEAT, ).

Large Chinese interior cities such as Wuhan, Chongqing, Zhengzhou, and Chengdu are likely to experience substantial industrially driven peri-urbanization over the next three decades.

From 2009 to 2025, the United Nations forecasts that cities from 500,000 to 1 million in population will grow 32% in population; cities 1–5 million 34%; cities 5–10 million 43%; and cities over 10 million 47% (United Nations, ).

The share of Beijing Municipality’s GDP in manufacturing has dropped from 60% in 1986 to 21% in 2009 (Beijing Statistical Bureau, ).

Radial (ring road) expressways, especially if they are developed early in expressway programming, promote urban sprawl more than radial expressways, which serve the city center. Thus although they may drive peri-urban development, they may have serious negative implications for the extended urban region as a whole.

For example, Tianjin South, Shanghai Hongqiao, Guangzhou South, Wuhan, and Shenyang all have peri-urban stations because of the extremely high cost of land in cities for stations and right-of-way.

The Philippines is #1 in the world in voice-based outsourcing and #2 in non-voice BPO (after India). The BPAP report mentioned above discusses the present and future role of this industry in the Philippines plus the expected role of the Cavite-Laguna area in the sector.

Which is not to say that China is devoid of patch-worked and stranded developments, or ambitious competitive officials and entrepreneurs who ignore official plans.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Douglas Webster

Douglas Webster is Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. He holds a PhD in City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Webster has undertaken extensive research, funded by a variety of international research agencies, on peri-urbanization processes in East Asia over the past 15 years. He was Senior Advisor to the National Planning Agency, Thailand from 1993 to 2003, where he pursued pioneering work on peri-urbanization in Southeast Asia. Since 2000 much of Professor Webster’s work on peri-urbanization has been undertaken in partnership with the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he is a Visiting Professor. Professor Webster is a frequent advisor on East Asian urbanization and city building to major international development organizations, corporations, and NGOs. He is author of many publications, both academic and practice-oriented, on urbanization in East Asia.

Jianming Cai

Jianming Cai is a Professor at the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He earned his First Degree (on urban planning and economic geography) from Beijing University, Master’s Degree (on GIS for urban applications) from ITC of the Netherlands, and his PhD on sustainable urban development from the University of Hong Kong. He has published more than 140 papers so far in academic journals, both in Chinese and English, plus many consultant reports. He frequently serves as a senior consultant or expert on urbanization, sustainable regional and urban development, urban agriculture, and food security to international agencies such as the World Bank, ADB, Ford, IDRC, DGIS, the Lincoln Institute, and Chinese governments, as well as to private sector entities such as Shui On Land.

Larissa Muller

Larissa Muller is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary. She holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Muller has been researching peri-urbanization dynamics in East Asia since 1998 as part of her wider interest in understanding the interplay between land development, municipal infrastructure, spatial economy, and urban design as it relates to the livability and economic competitiveness of city regions. Dr. Muller has advised international development agencies, national and metropolitan governments, NGOs, policy institutes, and corporations in Asia and North America on urban development strategies. She is the author of numerous publications and reports.