The chapters in Developmentalist Cities attend to the ways in which “developmentalism” in East Asia is not simply a top-down political imperative, but a geopolitical economic process. While it is widely accepted that East Asian states are “developmentalist” due to their particular patterns of economic growth and industrialization under a strong central government, the authors in this edited volume collectively urge us to more carefully consider the interplay between developmentalism and urban space.
Editors Jamie Doucette and Bae-Gyoon Park identify three key themes that run throughout the chapters: geopolitical economies, spaces of exception, and networks of expertise. The chapters are not divided into sections, as these themes do not operate as discrete categories, but rather interact throughout the chapters to advance understanding of the complex connections between developmentalist policies and ideologies and urban space across East Asia. However, the first three chapters after the introduction engage most concretely with geopolitical...
