The 'world city paradigm' assumes a convergence in economic base, spatial organisation and social structure among the world's major cities. However, Tokyo, capital of the world's second-largest national economy and the world's largest urban agglomeration, departs from the world city model on most salient dimensions. Seoul, centre of east Asia's second OECD member and the region's second-largest metropolis, exhibits the same anomaly. Tokyo and Seoul's departure from the world city hypothesis stem from late industrialisation and especially the relationship between industrial policy and finance institutionalised in a developmental state. Understanding Tokyo and Seoul necessitates a different conception of the world system from the globalist version of the world city argument. World cities differ from one another in many salient respects because they are lodged within a non-hegemonic and interdependent world political economy divided among differently organised national systems and regional alliances.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Akizuki K. (1995) Institutionalizing the local system: the Ministry of Home Affairs and inter-governmental relations in Japan, in: H.-K. KiM, M. Muramatsu, T. J. Pempel and K. Yamamura (Eds) The Japanese Civil Service and Economic Development , pp. 337-366. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
2.
Albert, M. (1993) Capitalism vs. Capitalism: How America's Obsession with Individual Achievement and Short-term Profit Has Led to the Brink of Collapse. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows.
3.
Amin, A. and Thrift, N. (1992) Neo-Marshallian nodes in global networks, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 16, pp.571-587.
4.
Amsden, A. (1989) Asia's Next Giant. New York : Oxford University Press.
5.
Beaverstock, J.V., Smith, R.G. and Taylor, P.J. (1999a) A roster of world cities, GaWC Research Bulletin, 5 ( http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/gy/research/gawc/rb5.html).
6.
Beaverstock, J.V., Smith, R.G. and Taylor, P.J. (1999b) The global capacity of a world city: a relational study of London, GaWC Research Bulletin, 7(A) (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/gy/research/gawc/rb71.html).
7.
Beveridge, A.A. (1996) Five important New York metro area trends, Footnotes, 24, pp. 1-2.
8.
Brandt, V. (1987) Korea, in: G. Lodge and E. Vogel (Eds) Ideology and National Competitiveness: An Analysis of Nine Countries , pp. 207-240. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press .
9.
Brown, C., Nakata, Y., Reich, M. and Ulman, L. (1997) Work and Pay in the United States and Japan. New York: Oxford University Press.
10.
Chang, H.-J. (1999) The economic theory of the developmental state , in: M. Woo-CUMINGs (Ed.) The Developmental State, pp. 182-199. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
11.
Cho, Y.J. (1995) Government intervention, rent distribution, and economic development in Korea, Journal of Asian Economies , 8, pp. 562-585.
12.
Chossudovsky, M. (1997) The IMF Korea bailout ( http://www.kimsoft.com/1997/sk-imfc.htm).
13.
Coombs, C. (1999) The role of international finance in Korean economic reconstruction and reunification, National Bureau of Asian Research Publications, 10(5), essay 1.
14.
Cowhey, P. and Aronson, J. (1993) Managing the World Economy. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.
15.
Crahan, M. and Vourvolias-Bush, A. (Eds) (1997) The City and the World: New York's Global Future. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.
16.
Cybriwsky, R. (1998) Tokyo. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
17.
Disclosure (1998) World Scope CD-ROM. (http://www.disclosure.com).
18.
Douglass, M. (1993) The 'new Tokyo story': restructuring space and the struggle for place in a world city, in K. Fujita and R. C. Hill (Eds) Japanese Cities in the World Economy, pp. 83-119. Philadelphia : Temple University Press.
19.
Drennan, M. (1991) The decline and rise of the New York economy, in: J. MoLlenkopf and M. Castells (Eds) The Dual City: RestructuringNew York, pp. 114-132. New York: Russell Sage.
20.
Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. (1992) Dun's Latin America's Top 25,000 Companies. Parsippany, NJ: Dun & Bradstreet, Inc.
21.
Eckert, C.J. (1993) The South Korean bourgeoisie: a class in search of hegemony, in H. Koo (Ed.) State and Society in Contemporary Korea, pp. 95-130. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
22.
FEER (Far Eastern Economic Review) (1988a) Too many people looking for too few houses, 8 September, pp. 84-85.
23.
FEER (Far Eastern Economic Review) (1988b) Low incomes, high rents, poor prospects, 8 September, p. 86.
24.
Fingleton, E. (1995) Blindside. New York: Free Press.
25.
Fitch, R. (1993) The Assassination of New York. London: Verso.
26.
Fortune (1998) http://www.fortune.com .
27.
Friedmann, J. (1986) The world city hypothesis, Development and Change, 17, pp. 69-84 (reprinted in: P. Knox and P. Taylor (Eds) (1995) World Cities in a World System , pp. 317-331. New York: Cambridge University Press).
28.
Friedmann, J. (1995) Where we stand: a decade of world city research , in P. Knox and P. Taylor (Eds) World Cities in a World System , pp. 21-47. New York: Cambridge University Press.
29.
Friedmann, J. and Wolff, G. (1982) World city formation: an agenda for research and action, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research , 6, pp. 309-344.
30.
Fruin, M. (1994) The Japanese Enterprise System. New York: Oxford University Press.
31.
Fujita, K. and Hill, R.C. (1998) Industrial districts in Tokyo and Osaka: dualism or collaboration ?, Economic Development Quarterly, 12, pp. 181-198.
32.
Gao, B. ( 1997) Economic Ideology and Japanese Industrial Policy: Developmentalism from 1931 to 1965. New York: Cambridge University Press.
33.
Gershenkron, A. (1962) Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
34.
Gibney, F. (Ed.) (1998) Unlocking the Bureaucrat's Kingdom. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
35.
Hartcher, P. (1998) The Ministry. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
36.
Hatada, T. (1969) A History of Korea. Santa Barbara, CA: Clio Press.
37.
HELD, D. McCREw, A. G., Goldblatt, D. and Perraton, J. (Eds) ( 1999) Global Transformations. Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press.
38.
Henthorn, W. (1971) A History of Korea. New York : The Free Press.
39.
Hill, R.C. (1996) Detroit and Osaka: urban life in the United States and Japan, MichiganSociological Review, 10, pp. 1-17.
40.
Hill, R.C. and Fujita, K. (1995) Osaka's Tokyo problem, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 19, pp. 181-193.
41.
Hill, R.C. and Fujita, K. (1997) Together and equal? Place stratification in Osaka , in: P. Karan and K. Stapleton (Eds) The Japanese City, pp. 106-133. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press .
42.
Hill, R.C. and Fujita, K. (2000) State restructuring and local power in Japan, Urban Studies, 37, pp. 673-690.
43.
Hirschman, A. (1981) Essays in Trespassing. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
44.
Hollingsworth, J. R., Schmitter, P. C. and Streek, W. (Eds) ( 1994) Governing Capitalist Economies. New York: Oxford University Press.
45.
Hong, S.W. (1996) Seoul: a global city in a nation of rapid growth , in: F. Lo and Y. Yeoung (Eds) Emerging World Cities in Pacific Asia, pp. 144-178. New York: United Nations University Press.
46.
Hoopes, D. (1994) Worldwide Branch Locations of Multinational Companies . Detroit: Gale Research, Inc.
47.
Hymer, S. (1971) The multinational corporation and the law of uneven development, in: J. W. Bhagwati (Ed.) Economics and World Order, pp. 113-140. New York: Macmillan.
48.
Jo, S.-J. (1992) The world city hierarchy and the city of Seoul: operationalising and assessing the 'world city hypothesis'. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Delaware.
49.
Johnson, C. (1978) Japan's public policy companies. American EnterpriseInstitute, Washington, D.C.
50.
Johnson, C. (1984) The Industrial Policy Debate. San Francisco, CA: ICS Press.
51.
Johnson, C. (1987) Political institutions and economic performance: the government business relationship in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, in: F. Deyo (Ed.) The Political Economy of the New Asian Industrialism, pp. 136-164. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
52.
Johnson, C. (1995) Japan: Who Governs?New York : W. W. Norton.
53.
Kim, J. and Choe, S. (1997) Seoul: The Making of a Metropolis. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
54.
King, A. (1990) Global Cities: Post-imperialism and the Internationalization of London. London: Routledge.
55.
Knox, P. and Taylor, P.J. (Eds) (1995) World Cities in a World System. New York: Cambridge University Press.
56.
Koh, B.C. (1989) Japan's Administrative Elite. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
57.
Korea Embassy, USA. (1998) http://korea.emb.washington.dc.us.
58.
Korea Herald (1999a) High unemployment will continue , 5 March (http://www.koreaherald.co.kr).
59.
Korea Herald (1999b), Korea's economic crisis leading to collapse of middle-income class. 3 July ( http://www.koreaherald.co.kr).
60.
Korea Ministry Of Reconstruction (1958) Development of the Korean Economy. Seoul: Republic of Korea.
61.
Korea Statistics Office (1995) Jiyeok Tonggye Yeonbo [Regional Statistical Yearbook]. Seoul: Korea Statistics Office.
62.
Kristof, N. and Sanger, D. (1999) How the U.S. wooed Asia to let cash flow in, New York Times, 16 February.
63.
Kwon, T.H. (1990) Iljaeshidaeeoi Doshiwha [Urbanization during Japanese Colonialism], in: Iljae shikmintongchiea sahoigujoeoi Byunwha [Japanese Colonial Rule and the Change in Social Structure], pp 251-298. Seoul : Hanguk Jeungshin Munwha Yeunguwon.
64.
Lee, B.-S., Lee, E.-S. and Park, H. (1995) Estimation of urban productivity indicator for the influence of traffic congestion in Seoul, in: Korea Research Institute For Human Settlements (Ed.) Cities and Nation: Planning Issues and Policies in Korea, pp. 249-276. Seoul : Korea. Research Institute for Human Settlements .
65.
Lee, J. ( 1998) Causes for business failures: understanding the 1997 Korean crisis, Journal of Asian Economies, 9, pp. 637-651.
66.
Lee, Y.-S. (1998) A political economy analysis of the Korean economic crisis, Journal of Asian Economies, 9, pp. 627-636.
67.
Leyshon, A. and Thrift, N. (1997a) Moneyl Space: Geographies of Monetary Transformation . London: Routledge.
68.
Leyshon, A. and Thrift, N. (1997b) In the wake of money: the city of London and the accumulation of value, in L. Budd and S. Whimser (Eds) Global Finance: A Study of Metropolitan Change, Ch. 5. London: Routledge.
69.
Lincoln, E. (1998) Deregulation in Japan and the United States: a study in contrasts, in F. Gibney (Ed.) Unlocking the Bureaucrat's Kingdom, pp. 53-68. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
70.
Mabuchi, M. (1995) Financing Japanese industry: the interplay between the financial and industrial bureaucracies, in: H. Kim, M. Muramatsu and T. J. Pempel (Eds) The Japanese Civil Service and Economic Development, pp. 288-310. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
71.
Machimura, T. (1992) The urban restructuring process in Tokyo in the 1980s: transforming Tokyo into a world city, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 15, pp. 114-128.
72.
Mardon, R. (1991) The state and the effective control of foreign capital: the case of South Korea, World Politics, 43, pp. 111-138.
73.
Matsumoto, K. (1991) The Rise of the Japanese Corporate System. London: Kegan Paul, Inc.
74.
McKenzie, R. (1917) The concept of dominance and world organization , American Journal of Sociology, 33, pp. 18-42.
75.
McKinnon, R. and Ohno, K. (1997) Dollar and Yen. Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press.
76.
McMahon, T., Larian, A. and Mollenkopf, J. (1997) Hollow in the Middle: The Rise and Fall of New York City's Middle Class. New York: New York City Council.
77.
Mikuni, A. (1998) The mirage of Japanese financial reform, JPRICritique, 5, pp. 1-2.
78.
Mollenkopf, J. and Castells, M. (Eds) (1991) The Dual City: RestructuringNew York. New York: Russell Sage.
79.
Morishima, M. (1981) Why Has Japan 'Succeeded' ?Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
80.
Muramatsu, M. (1997) Local Power and the Japanese State. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
81.
O'Cleireacain, C. (1997) The private economy and the public budget of New York City, in: M. Crahan and A. Vourvolias-Bush (Eds) The City and the World: New York's Global Future, pp. 22-38. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.
82.
Ohmae, K. (1985) Triad Power: The Coming Shape of Global Competition . New York: Free Press.
83.
Okazaki, T. (1995) Japan's prewar planning system, in: T. Aoki and R. Dore (Eds) The Japanese Firm, pp. 350-378. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
84.
Okimoto, D. (1989) Between MITI and the Market: Japanese Industrial Policy for High Technology. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
85.
Ostry, S. (1996) Policy approaches to system friction: convergence plus, in: S. Berger and R. Dore (Eds) National Diversity and Global Capitalism, pp. 333-352. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
86.
Park, S.Y. (1995) A mega city and its management, in: Korea Research Institute For Human Settlements (Ed.) Globalization and Regional Development in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim , pp. 67-93. Seoul: Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements .
87.
Pickvance, C. and Preteceille, E. (Eds) (1991) State Restructuring and Local Power: A Comparative Perspective. London: Pinter.
88.
Polanyi, K. (1944) The Great Transformation. Boston : Beacon Press.
89.
Renaud, B. (1974) Evolution of the urban system in Korea, 1910-1940: an economic interpretation, Bulletin of the Population and Development Studies Center, 3(26), appendix.
90.
Rii, H.U. (1996) Changes in land use patterns in Seocho-Gu Seoul, Korea, in: Fourth Asian Urbanization Conference Proceedings, pp. 96-103. Taipei, Taiwan.
91.
Ro, C.H. (1976) The Seoul phenomenon, in: Asia Urbanizing: Population Growth and Concentration Problems Thereof, pp. 55-68. Tokyo : Social Science Research Institute, International Christian University.
92.
Rosen, R. and Murray, R. (1997) Opening doors: access to the global market for financial sectors, in: M. Crahan and A. Vourvolias-Bush (Eds) The City and the World: New York's Global Future, pp. 39-50. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.
93.
Sakakibara, E. (1993) Beyond Capitalism. Maryland: University of America Press.
94.
Salvo, J. and Run P. (1997) Immigration and the changing demographic profile of New York, in: M. Crahan and A. Voupvolias-Bush (Eds) The City and the World: New York's Global Future, pp. 88-109. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.
95.
Sassen, S. (1991) The Global City: New York, London , Tokyo, Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press.
96.
Sassen, S. (1995) On concentration and centrality in the global city, in: P. Knox and P. Taylor (Eds) World Cities in a World System , pp. 63-78. New York: Cambridge University Press.
97.
Sassen, S. (1997) Cities, foreign policy, and the global economy , in: M. Crahan and A. Vourvolias-Bush (Eds) The City and the World: New York's Global Future, pp. 141-187. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.
98.
Sassen, S. (1999) Global financial centers, Foreign Affairs, 78, pp. 75-87.
99.
Sassen-Koob, S. (1986) New York City: economic restructuring and immigration , Development and Change, 17, pp. 85-119.
100.
Seoul Metropolitan Government (1994). Comparative Statistics of Major Cities. Seoul: SeoulMetropolitan Government.
101.
Seoul Metropolitan Government (1995) Seoul Statistical Yearbook. Seoul: Seoul Metropolitan Government.
102.
Seoul Metropolitan Government (1998) http://www.metro.seoul.kr.
103.
Sklair, L. (1991) Sociology of the Global System. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
104.
Smith, D.A. (1996) Third World Cities in Global Perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
105.
Stallings, B. and Streeck, W. (1996) Capitalisms in conflict? The United States, Europe and Japan in the post-cold war world, in: B. Stallings (Ed.) Global Change, Regional Response: The New International Context of Development, pp. 67-99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
106.
Stopford, J.M. (1992) Directory of Multinationals. New York: Stockton Press.
107.
Taggart-Murphy, R. (2000) Japan's economic crisis, New Left Review, 1, pp. 25-53.
108.
Taylor, P. (1995) World cities and territorial states: the rise and fall of their mutuality, in: P. Knox and P. Taylor (Eds) World Cities in a World-system, pp. 48-62. New York: Cambridge University Press.
109.
Un (United Nations) (1994a) World Investment Directory: Asia and Pacific. New York : UN.
110.
Un (United Nations) (1994b) World Investment Directory: Latin America and Caribbean. New York: UN.
111.
Un (United Nations) (1995) World Urbanization Prospects: The 1995 Revision. New York: UN.
112.
Us Bureau Of The Census (1993) 1990Census of Population: Social and Economic Characteristics of New York. New York.
113.
Us Department Of Commerce (1994) County and City Data Book. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
114.
Vogel, S. (1997) Can Japan disengage? Winners and losers in Japan's political economy, and the ties that bind them. Working Paper 111, BerkeleyRoundtable on the International Economy (BRIE), December.
115.
Wade, R. and Veneroso, F. (1998) The Asian crisis: the high debt model vesus the Wall Street-Treasury-IMF complex, New Left Review, 228(March/April), pp. 3-23.
116.
Weiss, L. (1997) Globalization and the myth of the powerless state , New Left Review, 225, pp. 3-27.
117.
Woo, J. (M. W-Cumings) (1991) Race to the Swift: State and Finance in Korean Industrialization. New York: Columbia University Press.
118.
W-Cumings, M. (1995) Developmental bureaucracy in comparative perspective: the evolution of the Korean civil service, in: J. Kim, M. Muramatsu, T. J. Pempel and K. Yamamura (Eds) The Japanese Civil Service and Economic Development , pp. 431-543. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
119.
Woo-Cumings, M. (Ed.) (1999) The Developmental State. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
120.
World Bank (1993) The East Asian Miracle. New York: Oxford University Press.
121.
World Bank (1995) World Development Report. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
