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Globalisation, Urban Form and Environmental Conditions in Asia-Pacific Cities

Department of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, and the United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Studies, 53-67 Jingumae 5-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8304, Japan, pjmarco{at}ias.unu.edu

Within the Asia-Pacific region, over the past few decades, cities have undergone massive transformations. These changes were underpinned by globalisation flows and new technologies and mediated by, inter alia, political institutions and policies. Given the seemingly ubiquitous nature and power of these influences, studies of emerging urban patterns within the region suggest that cities are growing more alike. At the same time, while cities articulated to the regional economic system are undergoing similar world city formation processes, they are also experiencing unique pressures. These influences are related to aspects of globalisation as well as to the 'nested' governmental policy responses to development pressures. Two differentiating globalisation-related pressures include the need for specialisation of functional roles within the competitive regional economic system and the rapid transfer of technologies and knowledge previously unavailable at lower income levels. The functional niche within the regional city system has forced cities to differentiate in terms of their economic activities, which has impacted their urban form. Transfers of technologies and information through trade and investment have benefited recipients and have also 'compressed' or 'telescoped' development, sped-up national urbanisation rates and created new types of environmental challenge through overlapping sets of environmental problems. Further, these impacts have been mediated differently by a variety of national and local policies. Together, this bundle of influences is creating an assortment of urban forms and environmental conditions within cities in the region. The results cast doubt on whether the physical forms of or environmental conditions within cities currently at different development levels are converging.

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