Behind the Economic Success of Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Industrial Park: Zoning Technologies under Neo-liberal Governmentality, Ongoing Primitive Accumulation, and Locals’ Resistance

Abstract

Abstract Focusing on local communities’ resistance to Hsinchu Science Industrial Park, this paper suggests that high-tech development projects in Taiwan should not be understood as something that stands in opposition to neo-liberalism, but as part of neo-liberal globalization. Moreover, this paper argues that neither the effective state intervention nor networks among high-tech firms are adequate to explain Taiwan's high-tech and capitalist development. Nor can this development be interpreted as an outcome of a combination of these two factors. Instead, it is an outcome of zoning technologies under neo-liberal governmentality and ongoing processes of primitive accumulation. While this high-tech development benefits high-tech capital and professionals active in that field, it suspends or curtails the rights of those citizens who are seen to have a low market value and lack global competiveness.