A regional and global perspective on Taiwan's urbanization: Desakotasi in I-Lan County, 1895-1994 (China)

This study explores the changes in the space economy of I-Lan County through two historical periods, the Japanese colonial era, 1895–1945, and the Kuomintang regime, 1945–1994, Archival and survey data are analyzed to investigate three questions. First, has I-Lan County developed a form of desakota settlement pattern described for other Asian countries by McGee? Second, what are the processive forces that contribute to this distinctive pattern of urbanization? Third, what are the consequences of this urbanization for the future development of the space economy for I-Lan and Northern Taiwan?; Theories such as the central place, regional growth, state-centered and modernization use a rural-urban distinction to develop arguments for urbanization. In contrast, the desakota theory proposes the necessity to reevaluate the conventional distinction and develop a different perspective that sees the rural-urban diverse as a spatial continuum that moves from an urban core through a region of mixed rural and urban activities in a dominantly rural region. In Asian countries, desakota refers to regions of an intense mixture of agricultural and non-agricultural activities that stretch along corridors between city cores. This specific mode of the space economy cannot be separated from societal change (i.e., technological change and globalization) and institutional components, such as the role of the state. Thus, I develop a societal conceptual model—local-state driven qesakota urbanization—to investigate my first two research questions. The outcome of this societal model, desakota urbanization, is mediated by the growth of industrialization encouraged by institutional (state), individual (entrepreneurs) and structural (global linkages) actors. The rise and fall of these three actors create a full scale symphony of urbanization.; There are three main findings in this study: (1) between 1895 and 1945, the central state's colonial policy and strength had major roles in channeling and controlling the impact of urbanization in I-Lan. In addition, the colonial form of development adopted by Japan emphasized the creation of I-Lan as a raw material supplier (rice, sugar and lumber) to the Japanese empire and eventually no industry developed. I-Lan's dependent development did not create urban primacy as the dependency/world-systems perspective predicted. In contrast, I-Lan was in a stage of transition to desakota urbanization by the end of the Japanese colonial rule; (2) after 1945, I-Lan County became more incorporated into the national and international space economy via a state policy, which encouraged investment of entrepreneurs, and Suao harbor's global linkages. The effect of local-global integration was a growth in industrialization and the emergence of type 3 desakota urbanization in I-Lan, and (3) after 1980, the DPP-controlled local state's policies focusing on culture-centered policy and a livable environment that led to a sluggish industrialization and persistent desakota, settlement system. In this way, I-Lan's desakota, urbanization was driven by the local state more than individual or global forces.