Premium
World Cities in the Pacific Rim: A New Global Test of Regional Coherence
Author(s) -
Taylor P.J.,
Doel M.A.,
Hoyler M.,
Walker D.R.F.,
Beaverstock J.V.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
singapore journal of tropical geography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1467-9493
pISSN - 0129-7619
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9493.t01-1-00071
Subject(s) - pacific rim , economic geography , commonwealth , geography , service (business) , pacific ocean , economy , test (biology) , regional science , economics , geology , oceanography , paleontology , archaeology
A new evaluation of the Pacific Rim concept is presented. The originality of this test for regional coherence is to be found in the basic units being analysed: cities instead of states. Based on a theoretical framework that identifies world city and world city network formation in terms of the office networks of advanced producer service firms, we use a principal components analysis to analyse a data set of 28 Pacific Rim cities and 46 global service firms. This identifies five main groupings of cities in terms of similar mixes of corporate service firms: a western Rim group; a group of ‘old Commonwealth’ cities; a market communist group of cities; Tokyo as a global city; and US cities as a specific separate group. These results confirm numerous earlier studies that were sceptical of the existence of a coherent Pacific Rim region. However, the particular approach adopted here allows us to identify the Pacific Rim generically as a particularly pernicious construct. We conclude that the Pacific Rim is a geographical chaotic conception.