The Science Park and the Governance Challenge of the Movement of the High-Tech Urban Region towards Polycentricity: The Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park

Abstract

In this paper I explore the governance challenges of science-park-based urban regions by exploring the case study of the Hsinchu science-based industrial park in Taiwan. In contrast to the economic emphasis of new regionalism on regional learning, I investigate the change and development of the high-tech Hsinchu region as it moves towards polycentricity, by exploring how the political processes of multiple and interconnected forces, from international to national and subnational levels, affect spatial-construction and regional governance issues. With reference to the analytical tool of the polycentric urban region (PUR), I highlight that international, national, and subnational forces caused the polycentric development, which in turn has led to governance contradictions and has politically affected the implementations of an ideal mode of the PUR.