UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) From the ‘Workshop of the World’ to an emerging global city-region: Restructuring of the Pearl River Delta in the advanced services economy Zhang, X. Publication date 2015 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Zhang, X. (2015). From the ‘Workshop of the World’ to an emerging global city-region: Restructuring of the Pearl River Delta in the advanced services economy. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:24 Sep 2021 From the ‘Workshop of the World’ to an Emerging Global City-Region Restructuring of the Pearl River Delta in the Advanced Services Economy Xu Zhang This research was primarily funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC). It also benefited from the financial support provided by the research group Geographies of Globalizations (GoG) of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam. ISBN: 978-94-6259-746-4 Design: Xu Zhang Printing: Ipskamp Drukkers Copyright ©2015 Xu Zhang All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing from the author ([email protected]) From the ‘Workshop of the World’ to an Emerging Global City-Region Restructuring of the Pearl River Delta in the Advanced Services Economy ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op dinsdag 22 september 2015, te 16.00 uur door Xu Zhang geboren te Henan, China Promotiecommissie : Promotor: Prof. dr. R.C. Kloosterman (University of Amsterdam) Copromotor: Prof. dr. N. Phelps (University College London) Overige leden: Prof. dr. B. Derudder (Ghent University) Prof. dr. E. Engelen (University of Amsterdam) Prof. dr. J. Nijman (University of Amsterdam) Prof. dr. K. Pain (University of Reading) Prof. dr. W. Salet (University of Amsterdam) Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen Information of Co-Authorship This dissertation is written on the basis of five articles. Only Chapter 3 is co-authored with Robert Kloosterman and is published as: Zhang, X., and Kloosterman, R.C. (2014) Connecting the ‘workshop of the world’: intra- and extra-service networks of the Pearl River Delta city-region. Regional Studies , published online before print. doi: 10.1080/00343404.2014.962492. Xu Zhang is the lead author of this chapter. He completed data collection and analysis and wrote most parts of the chapter. The second author Robert Kloosterman provided some insightful and useful suggestions in the framing of the argument. He also participated in the writing of some sections and helped with the editing of the text. Contents Acknowledgements i 1. Introduction 1 2. Globalization and the Megaregion: Investigating the Evolution of the Pearl River Delta in a Historical Perspective 19 3. Connecting the ‘Workshop of the World’: Intra- and Extra- Service Networks of the Pearl River Delta City-Region 44 4. Multiple Creators of Knowledge-Intensive Service Networks: A Case Study of the Pearl River Delta City-Region 71 5. Path Dependency and Strategic Management: Transitions of Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Contemporary Globalization 95 6. From the ‘Workshop of the World’ to the ‘Office of the World’? Rethinking Service-Led Development in the Pearl River Delta 123 References 141 Summary 160 Samenvatting 165 Acknowledgements Doing doctoral research and writing a PhD thesis was an exciting, but also very challenging experience. Luckily, many people have supported and encouraged me to complete this adventure in the past several years. By this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to some of them in particular. First of all, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to my promoter and supervisor, Professor Robert Kloosterman. Robert gave me an opportunity to become a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), and guided me throughout my PhD trajectory with his continuous support, valuable advice and generous trust. I like his sense of humour, and enjoy working with him very much. In addition, Robert also has a great interest in China. I look forward to his visit to my home country in the near future. I am also indebted to my second promoter, Professor Nicholas Phelps. Although Nick formally joined my supervision team at a relatively later stage, he brought me a fresh perspective and plenty of practical advice. Nick also has a good personality. It was a great experience for me to visit him at Portsmouth and London in the spring of 2014. My postgraduate supervisor, Professor Xue Desheng, played a very important role in guiding me into academia. He also gave me some very useful suggestions when I was doing fieldwork for my doctoral project in the Pearl River Delta in 2013. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to him here. I am very grateful to Michael Hoyler, John Harrison, Niels Beerepoot and Bart Lambregts, who invited me to contribute to their edited books and offered me many constructive comments and suggestions. I also want to thank my colleagues in the Geographies of Globalizations (GoG) research group for providing generous and useful feedbacks on my work during various formal and informal discussions. I hope we will have more opportunities to cooperate in the future. I was very lucky to have a bunch of great colleagues and friends in the Netherlands. i A special thanks to my Chinese colleagues Guowen, Jing, Guowei, Ming, Xue, Yang and Zhe; my office-mates Tara, Rowan, Johny, Joeri, Floris, Anita, Monika, Annisa, De-Jung, Barbara, Jana, Nesrin; our respectable ‘lunch manager’ Bas; and all my friends living in the Indische Buurt of Amsterdam. It was you who brought a lot of joys, laughter, and surprises to my life in Amsterdam! Also, I would like to thank the secretaries of the AISSR for providing me with all kinds of help in the past years. Finally and most importantly, I would like to thank my family, especially my Mom and Dad, for the enduring support, trust and encouragement they have given me. I am so blessed to have all of you in my life. What you have done for me is more than anything. I hope all of you will be always healthy and happy! ii .