ABSTRACT
We realize that this title may evoke images of astronauts in space, but in fact we are using the phrase in a technical sense which refers to a satellite’s electromagnetic web of territorial coverage in which video, audio and data signals can be exchanged. That is to say a space in which transactions and flows of information can be controlled and disseminated. The fact that messages can be transmitted almost instantaneously means that spatial and time barriers are in theory no longer constraints. This term appears to present the most extreme example of the ‘annihilation of space through time’ or ‘time-space convergence’ defined by Brunn and Williams (1983) as ‘the rate at which places are moving closer together measured by travel time and communication time’ (Brunn and Williams 1983:468). It is the central argument of this paper that the considerable success of the East Asian NICs1 in facilitating the process of ‘time-space convergence’ has been a crucial component in their process of economic development.
