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Free keywords:
global city-region; transnational corporations; Tokyo; transnational professionals; transnational space; socio-spatial pattern
Abstract:
Global-city research has focused primarily on considering transnational corporations and transnationalprofessionals (TNPs) in economic terms, neglecting the role of TNPs’specific socio-spatial practices inconstituting the transnational space. Although researchers on global city-regions (GCRs) have pointed tothe relevance of the larger regions for global cities, little is known about the TNPs moving into suchregions, and their socio-spatial patterns within them. On the basis of novel empirical results derived from45 in-depth interviews with TNPs, this paper sheds a light on patterns of socio-spatial practices in Tokyo,Japan–a well-established, yet unexplored, global city–and its larger GCR. Results show two distinctpatterns within the TNPs, that is, thegaijinghetto and the Pro-Tokyoite patterns. Thegaijinghetto ischaracterized by a Western-dominated culture and is spatially concentrated within a very small area inthe core of Tokyo, with limited extra-urban spots in the GCR. The Pro-Tokyoite pattern is spatially morevaried and spread within the larger metropolitan area, reaching into the wider GCR, with social practicesand interactions closer to the local peer group. This paper discusses how these socio-spatial patterns areembedded in the global, regional and local spatial settings and it demonstrates that TNPs are in factventuring out of the city centre into the broader GCR.
