IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v57y2025i1p3-21.html

Extended state infrastructure power in an age of networked competition: The cases of Thailand and Taiwan

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Stokols

    (Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA)

  • Justin Kollar

    (Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA)

Abstract

Scholars have highlighted the emergence of infrastructure as a key domain in the struggle over network centrality in what some call the ‘Second Cold War’ between the U.S. and China. We qualify this ‘infrastructural turn’ by drawing attention to the contingent nature of state infrastructural power as depending on key domestic firms that often serve as intermediaries between domestic infrastructure and global supply chains or international partners. Utilising empirical case studies based on field research conducted between 2021 and 2023 in Thailand and Taiwan, we analyse the ways in which state infrastructure power is exercised through strategic negotiation between national politics of the state and territorial investment decisions of multinational and major domestic firms within global supply chains. The study highlights how outcomes of state projects to foster connectivity or centrality in networks are shaped by contingent and sometimes ad-hoc coalitions between state agencies and domestic and multinational companies with their own interests and agency. In the case of Taiwan, the centrality of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to global supply chains makes it an important player amidst continued U.S.-China tension. In Thailand, CP Group’s connections to China have afforded it a role as an interlocutor between Thailand and China, allowing it to obtain state infrastructure contracts. Through comparative case studies the paper complicates both ‘globalist’ and methodologically nationalist perspectives on the ‘infrastructural turn’, and introduces the concept of ‘ extended state infrastructural power ’ to account for this complex, networked exercise of state authority.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Stokols & Justin Kollar, 2025. "Extended state infrastructure power in an age of networked competition: The cases of Thailand and Taiwan," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 57(1), pages 3-21, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:57:y:2025:i:1:p:3-21
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X241280751
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X241280751
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X241280751?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James Crotty, 2000. "Structural Contradictions of the Global Neoliberal Regime," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 361-368, September.
    2. Lin, Justin Yifu, 2021. "New structural economics: A framework of studying government and economics," Journal of Government and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(C).
    3. J Miguel Kanai & Seth Schindler, 2022. "Infrastructure-led development and the peri-urban question: Furthering crossover comparisons," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1597-1617, June.
    4. Harvey, David, 2007. "A Brief History of Neoliberalism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199283279.
    5. Seth Schindler & J. Miguel Kanai, 2021. "Getting the territory right: infrastructure-led development and the re-emergence of spatial planning strategies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(1), pages 40-51, January.
    6. Maximilian Mayer & Xin Zhang, 2021. "Theorizing China-world integration: sociospatial reconfigurations and the modern silk roads," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 974-1003, July.
    7. Weiss, Linda, 2021. "Re-emergence of Great Power Conflict and US Economic Statecraft," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 152-168, May.
    8. Haggard,Stephan, 2018. "Developmental States," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108449496, August.
    9. Alice H. Amsden & Wan-wen Chu, 2003. "Beyond Late Development: Taiwan's Upgrading Policies," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262011980, December.
    10. Trissia Wijaya & Kanishka Jayasuriya, 2024. "Militarised neoliberalism and the reconstruction of the global political economy," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 546-559, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ejiogu, Amanze & Ambituuni, Ambisisi & Ejiogu, Chibuzo, 2021. "Accounting for accounting’s role in the neoliberalization processes of social housing in England: A Bourdieusian perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    2. Yawei Zhao, 2026. "The digital-urban frontier in China: Data centres, extraction and the state in peripheral places," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 58(1), pages 3-17, February.
    3. Xiaobo Su & Kean Fan Lim, 2023. "Capital accumulation, territoriality, and the reproduction of state sovereignty in China: Is this “new†state capitalism?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(3), pages 697-715, May.
    4. Seth Schindler & J Miguel Kanai & Javier Diaz Bay, 2023. "Deindustrialisation and the politics of subordinate degrowth: The case of Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(7), pages 1212-1230, May.
    5. Rajah Rasiah & Xinxin Kong & Yeo Lin, 2010. "Innovation and learning in the integrated circuits industry in Taiwan and China," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 225-246.
    6. Jyh-Wen Shiu & Chan-Yuan Wong & Mei-Chih Hu, 2014. "The dynamic effect of knowledge capitals in the public research institute: insights from patenting analysis of ITRI (Taiwan) and ETRI (Korea)," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(3), pages 2051-2068, March.
    7. Howard Stein, 2012. "The Neoliberal Policy Paradigm and the Great Recession," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 59(4), pages 421-440, September.
    8. Jamie Redman, 2020. "The Benefit Sanction: A Correctional Device or a Weapon of Disgust?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 25(1), pages 84-100, March.
    9. Kim, Jinhee & Lee, Keun, 2022. "Local–global interface as a key factor in the catching up of regional innovation systems: Fast versus slow catching up among Taipei, Shenzhen, and Penang in Asia," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    10. Grzegorz W. Kolodko, 2009. "A Two-thirds Rate of Success: Polish Transformation and Economic Development, 1989-2008," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2009-14, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Firoz Alam & Shahid Alam & Mohammad Asif & Umme Hani & Mohd Naved Khan, 2023. "An Investigation of Saudi Arabia’s Ambitious Reform Programme with Vision 2030 to Incentivise Investment in the Country’s Non-Oil Industries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-19, March.
    12. Andrew Crookston, 2012. "Thomas J. Bassett and Alex Winter-Nelson: The atlas of world hunger," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(2), pages 277-278, June.
    13. Keun Lee & Di Qu & Zhuqing Mao, 2021. "Global Value Chains, Industrial Policy, and Industrial Upgrading: Automotive Sectors in Malaysia, Thailand, and China in Comparison with Korea," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(2), pages 275-303, April.
    14. Paola Perez-Aleman & Flavia Chaves Alves, 2017. "Reinventing industrial policy at the frontier: catalysing learning and innovation in Brazil," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(1), pages 151-171.
    15. Cohen, Joseph N, 2010. "Neoliberalism’s relationship with economic growth in the developing world: Was it the power of the market or the resolution of financial crisis?," MPRA Paper 24527, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Tsu Lung Chou & Yu Chun Lin, 2007. "Industrial Park Development across the Taiwan Strait," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(8), pages 1405-1425, July.
    17. Ilias Alami & Adam D Dixon, 2023. "Uneven and combined state capitalism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(1), pages 72-99, February.
    18. Yang Shen, 2015. "Why Does the Government Fail to Improve the Living Conditions of Migrant Workers in Shanghai? Reflections on the Policies and the Implementations of Public Rental Housing under Neoliberalism," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(1), pages 58-74, January.
    19. Magdalena Correo Henao & Daniela Amaya Castro & Mario Andrés Ospina Ramírez & Federico Suárez Ricaurte, 2021. "Pobreza y desigualdad prospectiva 2030. XXI jornadas de derecho constitucional constitucionalismo en ransformación. Prospectiva 2030," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1298.
    20. William Van Lear, 2011. "Economic Crisis and the Fiscal Challenge of the State," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(6), pages 61-77.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:57:y:2025:i:1:p:3-21. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.