ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of the effects of global and regional economic pressures and opportunities on one emerging regional or global city. It offers insights into the role, or potential role, of the state in telematics and conventional infrastructure development. It illustrates the importance of modern infrastructure for the functional transformation of the city, especially efforts to raise competitiveness and participation in financial and related services industries: infrastructure has to keep pace with functional change in the city, and, at the same time, provide the framework for such change. It provides an overview of economic and urban development in Shanghai in the post reform period. It considers Shanghai's connections into global and regional urban-economic systems, focusing on the role of foreign direct investment (FDI), trade, socio-political linkages, transport, telecommunications, and transnational corporations (TNCs). The impacts of the combined processes of modernization and internationalization on urban spatial and functional structure, and interurban relations including Shanghai's relations with Hong Kong.
