Extended Metropolitan Region

Victor FS Sit, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

© 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
This article is reproduced from the previous edition, volume 3, pp 697–704, © 2009 Elsevier Ltd., with revisions made by the Editor.

Glossary
Global city region A term invented by Scott to reflect the post-1980 “large-scale metropolitan urbanization” gravitating around
key metropolitan sites in the emerging global economic order. Among them many have been named megalopolises and had
been significant in national and global influence before the recent round of economic globalization. They also include key
metropolitan regions and their extending periphery in Pacific Asia, and Central and South America.
Megalopolis A term coined by Gottmann to mean a very large and spreading urban complex, with some open land and
farmland, formed when built-up areas, widespread over an extensive area due to the popular use of the automobile, enlarge to
such an extent that they become linked together. Megalopolises are formed in the northeastern seaboard of the United States,
or along the northern shore of the Inland East Sea/Sea of Japan. The component centers are not distinct from each other in
income level or level of economic development. The megalopolis is thus typical of mega-urban region development in
advanced economies.
Metropolitan-based region (MBR) In parts of the industrialized world, like Israel, a new metropolitan region has emerged. It is
composed of the metropolis and a surrounding territory. While the metropolis seems to be stagnant or may even experience
declines in growth, particularly in population, the surrounding territory has been growing rapidly, both economically and in
population due to intensified linkages with the metropolis. It is this wider spatial process of consolidation within the MBR that
has strengthened the economic role and influence of the metropolis. Such growth in the surrounding territory is not
suburbanization but a result of the unique combination of agglomeration diseconomies of the metropolis and the
agglomeration economies that attracted activities to its hinterland.
Metropolitan interlocking region (MIR) It is a term coined by Zhou to refer to the six large urban clusters in China.
Conceptually, the MIR is regarded as similar to the megalopolis, though it exhibits “Chinese characteristics” such as each
contains two or more cities with a population of over 1 million; a large international seaport with over 100 million tonnes of
annual throughput; an international airport; and a total population of 25 million. The component parts of the MIR are linked
together by efficient 1-day transport.

Definition

Pacific Asia had been the world’s fastest growing region in the decades of 1980–2000. Amid hectic economic growth, countries in
the region such as China, South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia experienced rapid urbanization around their major cities, often the
national capitals and port cities, that took the form of “regional urbanization,” that is, the urbanization of former rural areas around
urban cores. Such a pattern of concentrated growth has led to the formation of a large mega-urban region around the former
metropolis, that is, the formation of an extended urban region from the core metropolis that is dubbed as “extended metropolitan
region” (EMR).
The EMR is a term coined by McGee and is believed to be a local response in Pacific Asia to increasing economic globaliza-
tion, for the EMR doubles as a workbench for the global production system and a local logistics and marketing hub for multi-
national corporations (MNCs). The EMR shows a unique spatial structure with different growth patterns in its component
spatial parts. Within it, the old urban center or a few neighboring and functionally closely linked large cities form the core
(Fig. 1 and Table 1). While the core is growing slowly with lower fertility and lower net migration, the peripheral and/or inter-
stitial areas around the core, originally rural areas and small towns, tend to experience rapid economic development leading to
hectic structural transformation and population growth. These urban peripheries have been characterized by urban expansion,
rapid population growth, and large net migration increase. In short, greater involvement with global economic processes in the
core has led to an overspill of lower-skill and land-intensive activities into peripheral areas, which has caused the transforma-
tion of such areas.
At the regional scale, the EMR represents a new regionalism, which has importance in economic planning and political gover-
nance. The significance of EMR relates to the processes of globalization that has led to the ever more intensive concentration of
capital, people, institutions, and technology in localized urban clusters. These “new” urban regions are assuming important roles
as (1) a fundamental basis for economic and social life, (2) a vital relational asset for distilling learning-based competitive advan-
tage, and (3) a mesolevel of analysis within which to examine the new era of flexible capitalism. EMRs are thus different from other
mega-urban regions such as the megalopolis, metropolitan-based region, and global city region.

International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2nd edition, Volume 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10334-8 373

374 Extended Metropolitan Region

2 Shanghai EMR

JIANGSU
Nantung

Changzhou Wuxi
1 Suzhou

West
Shanghai
East SHANGHAI
Huzhou
2 Jiaxing
Central

ZHEJIANG

0 500 km 3

1 Beijing EMR 3 Hong Kong EMR

Qingyuan

GUANGDONG PROVINCE

Sanshui
Guangzhou
Huidong
Zhaoqing Foshan Dongguan Huizhou
Huiyang

Jiangmen Shenzhen
BEIJING Keiping Zhongshan
Zhuhai
Changping HONG KONG
Shunyi Taishan
Qinhuangdao MACAU
Mentaugu

Fangshan Tongxian Tangshan

Daxing
TIANJIN
Langfang 0 50 100 150 km

Provincial/provincial-
HEBI PROVINCE level boundary

Municipal boundary

District/county boundary

Core city

Inner ring

Outer ring

Figure 1 The three coastal extended metropolitan regions (EMRs) of China. Sit, V.F.S., 2005. China’s extended metropolitan regions: formation and
delimitation. Int. Dev. Plan. Rev. 27 (3), 297–331; Jones, G.W., 2002. Southeast Asian urbanization and the growth of mega-urban regions. J. Pop-
ulation Res. 19 (2), 119.
 Extended Metropolitan Region 375

Table 1 Selected Extended Metropolitan Regions (EMRs) in Asia

Population (in 1000) Population and Growth Rate (%) Density (Pop./km2)
EMR Area (km2) 1980 1990 2000 1980–90 1990–2000 1980 2000

Bangkok
Core 1565 4691 5876 6362 2.28 0.80 3000 4038
Ring 6200 1947 2706 3760 3.35 3.34 314 606
Total 7765 6644 8582 10,080 2.59 1.62 855 1298
Jakarta
Core 664 6481 8223 8385 2.41 0.20 9760 12,689
Ring 5312 5413 7676 12,749 3.55 5.20 1019 2388
Total 5916 11,894 15,899 21,134 2.94 2.89 1990 3536
Manila
Core 636 5926 7948 9933 2.98 2.25 12,497 15,617
Ring(1) 2927 2820 4107 5049 3.83 2.09 1403 1724
Ring(2) 9394 2932 3908 4806 2.92 2.09 312 511
Total 12,967 11,678 15,963 19,788 3.18 2.17 901 1526
Seoul
Core 615 8364 10,613 9853 2.41 0.74 13,600 16,021
Ring 3800 4934 7974 9463 4.92 1.73 1298 2490
Total 4415 13,298 18,587 19,316 3.41 0.39 3012 4375

Sit, V.F.S., 2005. China’s extended metropolitan regions: formation and delimitation. Int. Dev. Plan. Rev. 27 (3), 297–331; Jones, G.W., 2002. Southeast Asian urbanization and the
growth of mega-urban regions. J. Population Res. 19 (2), 119.

Formation and Spatial Structure

In the late 1980s, some researchers had noted the development of large areas of “desakota” (semirural, semiurban, or rural–urban
transitional zones) around major urban centers in Southeast and East Asia, leading to the formation of a new type of mega-urban
regiondthe EMR. The EMR is regarded as a distinct component of recent urbanization in Pacific Asia, a dynamic transactive region
that defies all levels of conventional rural–urban thinking. The key cities in Southeast and East Asia on which the EMRs were often
based were already economic foci of their respective countries before the 1980s. They possess obvious advantages for foreign direct
investment (FDI) and export-oriented economic growth after these nations deregulated and embraced economic globalization since
the 1980s. In particular, the “global shift” associated with the new international division of labor (NIDL) has given momentum to
the growth of EMR. Agglomeration economies underpin the comparative advantages of these major metropolises such that they
continue to exert a powerful magnetic attraction for investment and services, while at the same time stifling the potential for urban
and industrial dispersal. The resultant increase in export-oriented manufacturing and logistics (which include the warehousing,
distribution, and transportation of both exported and imported goods for the national market) has fueled economic and urban
growth around them, leading to the formation of the desakota zone whose name derives from the Indonesian terms for town
and village.
The desakota contains not just the conventional range of rural and agricultural operations but a mixture of activities of a nonag-
ricultural nature and some of urban characteristics, with comprehensive sets of economic, social, and cultural links with the nearby
metropolis. Thus, “regional urbanization” takes the spatial form of extension of the core metropolis in desakota growth, often
joining together into one urban region of functionally linked towns and cities in the vicinity. “Glocalization,” the functional
and spatial processes that enable the metropolis to continue to grow locally alongside increasing economic globalization, is there-
fore the major process behind EMR formation. Through “glocalization” or EMR formation, cities and nations are able to engage and,
more importantly, to retain their stake in global and regional economies.
The Hong Kong EMR (Hong Kong as its core and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) as its periphery) and the EMRs in Indonesia, Thai-
land, and the Philippines demonstrate that economic globalization in the form of FDI in labor-intensive, export-oriented industries
has been the main force behind EMR formation. The spatial characteristics of these EMRs are also distinct from those of a megalop-
olis. Within each EMR there is a socioeconomic and population gradation that descends from the core to the periphery to reflect the
functional/economic division of labor between these two component parts, and the spatial difference between them, to underline
their different economic and infrastructural milieux. For example, FDI in the tertiary sector of the EMR is mostly attracted to the core,
while FDI in labor-intensive industries, warehousing, transport, and recreation is largely located in the periphery. These two
spatially distinct roles within the EMR are integrated in the “front shop–back factory” model as revealed in the Hong Kong EMR
case. More precisely, service activities, including producer services and international trade, are located in the core city to support
the overall role of the EMR as a production and marketing platform in NIDL and international sourcing, while production processes
depending on cheap and unskilled labor are largely found in the periphery.
376 Extended Metropolitan Region

As illustrated by Table 1, in Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and South Korea (countries that vary in size from about 90,000
to over 1 million sq km), the respective EMRs cover a territory of 4415–12,967 sq km, with a population of 11–21 million. In terms
of area, each occupies less than 5% of the country concerned. However, they are the national capitals, the most important interna-
tional ports, and the most highly urbanized and developed regions of these countries. They are also the main recipients of FDI (e.g.,
46.8% in Bangkok; 35% in Jakarta), and national nodes for integrating with the global economy in the form of international trade
and passenger flows.
The spatial expansion of the core city into its immediate former countryside to form the EMR has been a means for keeping down
the critical costs of land and labor, and for avoiding the growth restraining concerns of congestion, pollution, and shortage and high
cost of space in the core metropolis. As referred above, it is a form of glocalization, by which these metropolises have remained
competitive and capable of attracting further inflows of FDI in increasing economic globalization to function as low-cost production
centers and local marketing and logistics hubs for MNCs. The Bangkok EMR, which comprises the Bangkok Metropolitan Area
(1565 sq km) as the core city and the surrounding five provinces (6193 sq km) as its periphery, may illustrate such a glocalization
process. Between 1980 and 1995, the core city was rapidly “Manhattanizing,” that is, becoming more specialized in high-level
producer services such as banking and financing, and taking on an urban landscape characterized by a skyscraper style of modern
intelligent office blocks. Measured in investment terms, it had registered a 150% growth in its banking, finance, and real estate
sectors. It also had absorbed 83% of Thailand’s total investment in services. The periphery, comprising the surrounding cities
and the desakota area, contained 64% of the EMR’s investment in manufacturing and accounted for 23% of Thailand’s total invest-
ment in manufacturing for the same period.
Indeed, glocalization reflects the functional and spatial processes of EMR formation as (1) the core city becomes increasingly
specialized in producer services, and it also includes a concentration of hotels and tourist facilities, modern international transpor-
tation, and communication infrastructures such as airports, seaports, and “info ports,” which enable it to serve as the national/
regional hub for international and domestic cargo, passenger, and information flow and (2) labor- and land-intensive activities,
including manufacturing, warehousing, and recreational facilities, have been decentralized and expanded into the periphery. In
summary, EMR formation represents a more thorough-going integration of Pacific Asia and its cities into the global system while
the traditional core–periphery relation was an inadequate way of encapsulating the present role of these city regions in the post-
1980 world economyda trend that was said to have been accelerated in the 1990s.
The Chinese EMRs are typical in terms of the dynamics of EMR formation and its spatial processes and characteristic features, as
among the Asian Pacific countries, China has been vigorously deregulating, pursuing reforms to attract FDI, and actively partici-
pating in the global economy. These efforts have been generalized by the rubric of the “open and reform policy” that started in
1978. At present, the country is the world’s second largest host to FDI, with the United States being the world leader. Out-
processing, which is a form of less developed country (LDC) participation in NIDL based on cheap labor and efficient access to
global markets, accounted for over 50% of China’s total international trade and has been a key dynamic in the nation’s rapid
economic growth in the past two decades. The last two processes have been concentrated in the country’s coastal region where three
EMRs have been taking shape (Fig. 1). These processes reflect the locations of China’s major port cities and the earlier and privileged
policies in the open and reform policy that these locales have enjoyed. However, like some Western scholars, many Chinese
researchers have confused the Chinese EMRs with megalopolises and created a new termdthe metropolitan interlocking regions
(MIRs)dfor these urban clusters of China. They nevertheless admit the connection between the global economy (particularly
trade), dense and interactive urban growth within the region, and the coordinating role of the central city in MIR formation.

EMR Delimitation

Existing EMR studies usually intuitively take the largest city of the country as the core city, and its adjacent administrative units, very
often provinces, municipalities, or counties that are believed to have received the dispersal of economic activities from the core city,
as the periphery or ring. In short, they use the central metropolis as the core, while contiguous administrative units that satisfy
selected demographic, density, and employment criteria are included as the ring. The latter comprises sometimes the inner ring
(30–50 km from the core) and the outer ring (50–100 km from the core). Such definition is not a problem in itself, though it is
not scientific. In the four cases in Table 1, the core city is small (615–1565 sq km in size) while the periphery may be 4–6 times
the core area. Population growth and the “regional urbanization” in these EMRs take place mainly within the periphery, whose pop-
ulation growth rate varies from 2 to 20 times that of the core city. With the exception of the Seoul EMR, which lies in a country with
a very high level of urbanization of over 83%, the EMR periphery in Pacific Asia in general comprises a substantial rural population.
Like other Asia Pacific studies, Chinese scholars have also paid little attention to the scientific delimitation of the EMR. The
first serious attempt to delimit a Chinese EMR quantitatively was made by Ning. For him the EMR is composed of a number of
metropolitan regions contiguous to each other. Each metropolitan region should have a central city with a population of over
200,000. The ring of the region comprises surrounding rural counties that (1) are intensively linked to the central city and
(2) have achieved a high degree of urbanization and industrialization, measured by the contribution of nonagricultural activities
to GDP (>75%) and employment (>60%), and transportation connectivity with the central city. Sit based his analysis on sub-
municipal, that is, urban district and county data, using variables on economic growth, economic globalization (measured by
FDI inflow and international trade), producer services, and rural–urban use mix to delimit the core, inner, and outer rings of
the EMRs in China (Table 2).
 Extended Metropolitan Region 377

Table 2 Criteria for Delimitating the Three Extended Metropolitan Regions

Delimitation Indice
National Three Coastal Clusters a Core Inner Ring Outer Ring

Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) (U) 6387 11,728 >23,456 >17,592 >11,728
Actualized foreign direct investment per 10,000 U GDP 535 655 >1310 >983 >655
(U)
Export/GDP (%) 19.7 35.5 >53.3 >35.5 >19.7
Tertiary sector/GDP (%) 33.0 39.1 >60.0
Primary sector/GDP (%) 15.7 11.0 <5 <7.5 <15.7

The three coastal clusters refer to the provincial units included in step 2. Using these more globalized provinces’ averages as baselines generates areas of higher level of development
and of more intensively globalized economy.
a
The criteria have been applied to official statistics of various provinces and subprovincial regions for 1999 based on the administrative divisions of that year. Data computed by author
from various official economic yearbooks of 2000.
Sit, V.F.S., 2005. China’s extended metropolitan regions: formation and delimitation. Int. Dev. Plan. Rev. 27 (3), 297–331; Jones, G.W., 2002. Southeast Asian urbanization and the
growth of mega-urban regions. J. Population Res. 19 (2), 119.

Table 3 Key economic and Social Data for the Three Extended Metropolitan Regions (EMRs), 1999

Population Gross domestic product Industrial output Utilized Foreign Direct Export
EMR Area (sq. km) (10,000) (GDP) (U100 mil.) (U100 mil.) Investment (US$100 mil.) (US$100 mil.)

Beijing
Core 1112 947 540 1394 7.2 3.6
Inner ring 11,066 684 930 1736 29.8 113.4
Outer ring 19,038 860 2632 2227 4.0 40.0
Subtotal 31,216 2512 4102 (31.8%) 5357 41.0 157.0
Shanghai
Core 812 738 1153 1755 15.0 100.0
Inner ring 11,811 914 4006 4786 36.9 144.5
Outer ring 28,983 2280 3395 8844 12.1 81.5
Subtotal 41,586 4032 8554 (31.6%) 15,385 64.0 326.0
Hong Kong
Core 1100 684 8091 2510 252.0 1000.0a
Inner ring 9478 903 4038 3018 60.0 360.0
Outer ring 32,244 1402 2400 8436 61.0 314.0
Subtotal 42,822 2989 14,529 (95.6%) 13,964 373.0 1674.0
Three EMRs as % of 1.24b 7.53b 30.7b 26.7b 73.0b 73.1b
national total

Bracketed values are ratios of export value to GDP.

a
Include half of Hong Kong’s reexports, that is, US$75.8 billion.
b
Include Hong Kong and Macau.
Sit, V.F.S., 2005. China’s extended metropolitan regions: formation and delimitation. Int. Dev. Plan. Rev. 27 (3), 297–331; Jones, G.W., 2002. Southeast Asian urbanization and the
growth of mega-urban regions. J. Population Res. 19 (2), 119.

As shown in Table 3, the Chinese EMRs are of roughly the same size, about 30,000–40,000 sq km in area, with a radial extent of
about 150 km, and a population of 20–40 million. They are comparable with each other, though a few times larger than other EMRs
in the Asia Pacific. All three cities have very high overall population densities. In terms of size of their economy measured by GDP,
both the Shanghai and Hong Kong EMRs exceed US$100 billion. This is comparable to a medium-sized and medium-income-level
country. The gradation from the core to the outer ring in population density, per capita GDP, and intensity of export has been
obvious (Table 3 and Fig. 1).
In the past 20 years, the three EMRs have dominated China’s export-oriented economy. In 1999, they accounted for 73% of
China’s FDI inflow, 73.1% of its total exports, and contributed 30.7% of the country’s GDP, although they occupied only
1.24% of the nation’s territory and accommodated 7.53% of its total population (Table 3). Of the three EMRs, the Hong Kong
EMR has an economic size about 70% larger than the Shanghai EMR as measured by GDP. It is also a much more open economy
in terms of utilized FDI and exports. This is contrary to the findings of many proto-EMR studies by mainland Chinese researchers,
who regard the urban cluster in the Yangtze Delta as the most important economic region in the Chinese economy. This message is
easily understood as the Hong Kong EMR possesses Asia’s largest international port cluster and airports cluster. As Table 3 illus-
trates, in 1999, the EMR handled 56.6% of China’s total exports (US$67.4 billion in value) and absorbed 57% (US$37.3 billion)
of its total FDI inflow.
378 Extended Metropolitan Region

Favorable geographical locations, appropriate open and liberal policies, and modern infrastructure have enabled the three EMRs,
particularly the Hong Kong EMR, to be hubs for domestic and international flows of people, materials, and capital, and production
centers of export-oriented industries. They are at present a global factory for the production of light manufactures of low-skill inputs,
for example, textiles, garments, toys, footwear, consumer electrical and electronics, and computer parts and peripherals. These three
EMRs are equally significant bases for China’s import-substitute consumer industries, which are highly globalized in the form of
joint ventures and technology transfer, for example, the auto and household appliances industries in Shanghai and PRD. The
Hong Kong EMR has exemplified the path of EMR formation centered around a major port city of long experience in producer
services, supported by a legal system with international credibility, being an international finance and trading center, an entrepot
with excellent port facilities, besides having postwar industrialization experience that provides it with accumulated expertise in
marketing, design, and production management, while the PRD’s large labor and land resources complement the manufacturing
process that is decentralized from yet dependent on, as well as supportive of the core city.

EMR: Management

EMRs are expanding rapidly in Pacific Asia due mainly to glocalization over the past three decades. They are at present in the midst
of a structural change to meet intensified interurban competition across nations, particularly nations within Pacific Asia which has
been the world’s most dynamic growth engine since the 1980s. With worldwide economic integration, the accelerated “regional
urbanization” in the form of the EMR has presented many challenges to researchers and policy makers as their developed has
made traditional concepts of the city and the related urban and regional planning and development strategies increasingly
problematic.
The growth and development of EMR have also enhanced regional competence by bringing together nearby administratively
independent territorial units of different comparative advantages into single urban economic regions. So far, the growth has mostly
been the outcome of economic forces rather than of direct government promotion. Keen competition among EMR, however, has
pushed some toward further improving their competitiveness through a new level of intra-EMR cooperation in which governments
have played a leading role, such as coordination in pan-EMR projects and policies in infrastructure, trade and tax, and in place-
marketing in the global market through trade fairs, exhibitions, and trade promotion. For example, Hong Kong’s intra-EMR initia-
tive has resulted in closer economic partnership agreement (CEPA) with mainland of China. In Indonesia, the Special Region of the
National Capital of Jakarta has been created to coordinate development and planning of the Jakarta EMR or Jabotabec. Intra-EMR
cooperation with a coordinated and unified development vision for the component administrative areas and ensuring intraregional
economic policies has now been generally accepted. The setting up of pan-region institutions for such purposes, for example, under
CEPA, for implementing the agreed policies, has become an urgent planning agenda in the central and relevant local governments of
respective nations.
Although the term EMR was raised as early as 1989, our understanding of the EMR is still inadequate, both conceptually and
quantitatively, for addressing pressing issues of planning and policy formulation for achieving development through harnessing
the forces of economic globalization. Their obvious competitive advantages in the era of economic globalization mean that
EMRs will continue to be the major growth centers for many LDCs. How to better understand them and to harness their special
features and advantages for further growth should therefore be an important item for planners and policy makers. For example,
with deepening of economic globalization and competition among Asia Pacific’s mega-urban regions, China’s EMRs have to
stay competitive internationally, in order to be the country’s primary future growth platforms and key to further economic devel-
opment. In order to remain competitive, Chinese central and local governments should provide a stable and fair legal and social
environment for enterprises and individuals within the EMRs. In addition, they should take action to induce more polarization, that
is, concentrated development for scale economies and specialization economies, and economic globalization by (1) abridging
administrative hurdles for the flow of people, materials, and capital between different component parts of the EMR and to achieve
integrative planning within the EMR based on a common development vision, and (2) adopting the right policies for attracting FDI
and for achieving further international competitiveness.
Besides adding impetus to national economic growth, as fast growing large urban units, EMRs have also created quality of life
and environmental problems, as well as problems of regional disparity. Firman has listed a number of environmental issues caused
by the rapid growth of Jabotabec in Indonesia: (1) loss of farmland, (2) degradation of water resources, (3) commercial agriculture
in upland areas, (4) replacement of mangroves by housing, (5) rapid increase in urban solid wastes, and (6) air pollution. Accom-
panying and making these issues increasingly problematic are also faults in local governance, for example: (1) violation of land use
plans by local governments for encouraging business activities, (2) absence of metropolitan authorities above local governments to
coordinate sectoral planning in the EMR, and finally, (3) in plan implementation, local governments compete, instead of cooper-
ating with one another, over metropolitan development planning. Thus, it is generally agreed that concerns over future growth of an
EMR are not simply ones of economic development and ability in harnessing globalization forces. Environmental and social
sustainability are equally important for continued growth and development. Government authorities, too, have to pay attention
to redressing regional disparity caused by polarized development in the form of EMR growth. Large-scale influx of population
into outer areas of EMRs has caused strains on the resources, environment, and social stability of urban regions. The pending rapid
structural change of EMRs economically into economies of higher order and higher value-added activities, and further spatial
dispersal of the low-skill and labor-intensive activities beyond the EMR into remoter provinces, such as the case of China, have
 Extended Metropolitan Region 379

also cautioned the need for new and coordinated policies both at the regional and national level. Quite obviously, new institutional
changes above what has been mentioned are required for coping with both these economic and noneconomic concerns within and
outside EMRs.
Mega-urban region growth in developing countries represents the best and worst of the development process. EMRs are not only
places where highly productive and innovative economies are present but where multifaceted market failures will likely happen in
future, leading to issues of environmental and social stability and overall sustainability of development. EMR authorities may
submit to these pressures passively or engage actively in institution building and policy making in an effort to avoid the negative
side effects of development and of rigid management and thereby continue to turn globalization as far as possible to their
maximum benefit.

See Also: Foreign Direct Investment; New Regionalism; Region; Transnational Corporations in Developing Countries; Transnationalism and Labor
Geography; Urbanization.

Further Reading

Bar-El, R., Parr, J.B., 2003. From metropolis to metropolis-based region: the case of Tel-Aviv. Urban Stud. 40, 113–125.
Firman, T., 1995. The emergence of extended metropolitan regions in Indonesia: Jabotabec and Bandung metropolitan area. Rev. Urban Region. Dev. Stud. 7, 166–188.
Gottmann, J., 1961. Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States. K.I.P., New York.
Hudalah, D., Firman, T., 2012. Beyond property: industrial estates and post-suburban transformation in Jakarta Metropolitan Region. Cities 29, 40–48.
Jones, G.W., 2002. Southeast Asian urbanization and the growth of mega-urban regions. J. Popul. Res. 19, 119.
Lo, Fu-chen, Marcottullio, P.J. (Eds.), 2000. Globalization and urban transformations in the Asian Pacific region: A review. Urban Studies, 37, pp. 77–111.
Macheod, G., 2001. New regionalism reconsidered: globalization and the remaking of political economic space. Int. J. Urban Region. Res. 25, 804–829.
McGee, T.G., 1989. Urbanisasi or kotadesasi? Evolving patterns of urbanization in Asia. In: Costa, F.J. (Ed.), Urbanization in Asia. UHP, Honolulu, pp. 93–108.
McGee, T.G., 1995. Metrofitting in emerging mega-urban region in ASEAN: an overview. In: McGee, T.G., Robinson, I.M. (Eds.), The Mega-Urban Regions of Southeast Asia. UBC
Press, Vancouver.
McGee, T.G., 1998. Globalization and rural-urban relations in the developing world. In: Lo, F., Yeung, Y.M. (Eds.), Globalization and the World of Large Cities. UNU, Tokyo,
pp. 471–496.
Ning, Y., 1998. New urbanization process: on China’s urbanization dynamics and characteristics. In: Xue, X.X., Yen, X. (Eds.), China’s Rural-Urban Transition and Coordinated
Development. Science Press, Beijing, pp. 201–207.
Scott, A.J., Agnew, J., Soja, E.W., Storper, M., 2001. Global city regions. In: Scott, A.J. (Ed.), Global City-Regions: Trends, Theory, Policy. Oxford University Press, Oxford,
pp. 11–32.
Sit, V.F., 1996. Mega-city, extended metropolitan region, desakota, and exo-urbanization: an introduction. Asian Geogr. 15, 1–14.
Zhou, Y.X., 1991. The metropolitan interlocking region in China: a preliminary hypothesis. In: Ginsburg, N., Koppel, B., McGee, T.G. (Eds.), The Extended Metropolis: Settlement
Transition in Asia. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, pp. 89–112.