The thesis uses Taiwan as a case study to examine the following argument: both the changes to the capitalist world-system and the political dynamics of domestic statecapital- labour relations determine national capitalist development and ascent trajectory. Taiwan was chosen as a case study because it demonstrates the particular developmental trajectory of semi-peripheral ascent (ascent from the semi-periphery) and of a rising East Asian economy. I study the case by firstly analysing Taiwan’s peripheral ascent (from the periphery to the semi-periphery) in the historical process. Secondly the thesis studies three sectors as a national case, namely the industrial sector, the financial sector, and the labour sector. The three sectors demonstrate the dynamics of a semi-peripheral ascent trajectory as they represent the development of industrial production, financial expansion, and anti-systemic movements, which are all keys to influence semi-peripheral ascent. The thesis finds that although there are opportunities for Taiwan’s semi-peripheral ascent, Taiwan has not yet ascended to the core. The reasons are (1) the state’s restrictions on the overseas expansion of Taiwanese industrial capital and financial capital, in particular to China; (2) Taiwanese industrial capital and financial capital still rely on capital from the core zone. The thesis therefore contributes to the study of semi-peripheral ascent by adding analysis of domestic state-capital-labour relations into the context of a changing capitalist world-system.

In recent years, both policy-makers and politicians have been confronted with increasing obstacles towards the interpretation, usage, prediction and application of data, information and of knowledge. This has often resulted in surprises, for instance, as predicted outcomes of introduced policy changes, either did not take effect or simply took on other forms that were not desired. Added to that, new developments and advances in a number of key technological areas have led to the emergence of new knowledge-intensive and technologically-complex disciplines, such as Nanotechnology, Genetic Engineering or Synthetic Biology. The complexity that is inherent in any of these new disciplines poses new challenges to both policy-making and public participation. This thesis focuses on the question of whether increasing complexity and knowledge-intensity that follow current and future technological developments will lead to a decrease in both the public’s interests and ability to participate in the public debate. In addition, this thesis will investigate how policy recommendations are affected when the dependency on expertise, which is due to the inherent knowledge-intensity of these new disciplines, is on the rise. Nanotechnology has been chosen as an example case of one of these new knowledge-intensive and technologically-complex disciplines. By developing and employing a knowledge framework that is based on a practical approach to distinguishing various types of knowledge; public and expert opinions as well as policy recommendations will be analysed in order to determine whether a new approach for involving the public and for the future of policy recommendation is required. Furthermore, by applying this knowledge framework to three selected theories of policy process, special emphasis is placed on the applicability of different types of knowledge and information in policy contexts. An additional aim is to assess the use of terms, such as information and knowledge, in the policy sciences. Using these different types of knowledge, for instance, by making a deliberate distinction between knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description, or between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge, allows identifying what can be known by whom, and thus will shed new light on both policy recommendations and on what can be expected from the public’s involvement in the future. This thesis will suggest that when dealing with knowledge-intensive and technologically-complex disciplines, the importance of acknowledging different types of knowledge is a prerequisite for improving the quality of policy-making, policy recommendations as well as public engagement. Also, a case will be made against a generic use of the terms knowledge and information in policy literature. As much as policy information does not equal any generic type of information, lacking specificity with regards to information and knowledge in the theories of policy may invalidate or at least challenge some claims made policy scientists, as expected outcomes that apply to one particular type of information may not automatically apply to another.

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Many city managers across the world, including the current leadership of Johannesburg, have as a driving policy ambition improving their city’s ranking in the hierarchy of so-called ‘world cities’. This is despite the relatively well documented polarising tendencies of global and world cities’ (GaWC) development patterns and despite the availability of alternative, more equitable conceptualisations of city trajectories. The overriding objective of the thesis is to unsettle the power of GaWC as normative aspiration, especially for cities whose status in formal GaWC taxonomies is uncertain. The thesis focuses on the neglected role of politics in accounts of world city formation, drawing attention to the often highly conflictual nature of world city making. Bringing politics back in unsettles the normative appeal of the world city model and contributes to a critique of GaWC theory’s deterministic readings of city trajectories ‘in the globalised era’. It is also a crucial step in explaining and, indeed, highlighting the ongoing diversity of city paths on the ground. The Johannesburg case provides strong backing for a more politically attuned conception of world (and all) city trajectories. The active agency of city actors in attempting to shape the post-Apartheid city’s future defies GaWC’s focus on structural explanations of urban processes. Indeed, the sheer complexity of the political field uncovered in the research draws attention to the myriad ways in which politics matters in explanations of urban change. In particular, the study suggests the need to extend current dominant (northern-derived) analytical tools of city politics such as urban regime theory. A greater attentiveness to such political dynamics as circulating discourses, the workings of political parties/complex bureaucracies, or ‘everyday’ forms of politics, may well help expose the range of possible urban futures for – ‘ordinary’, ‘gobalising’ - cities. This argument is developed through a close examination of the City of Johannesburg’s current grappling with world city ambitions. Based on detailed qualitative research, the thesis demonstrates the intensely political nature of world city making in the post-Apartheid city. In particular, the emergence of the world city vision in Johannesburg is shown to be intimately related to the volatile and conflictual period of democratic transition in the city. The distinct political genesis of the vision explains the ambiguous political attitude to the world city imaginary amongst city managers, as well as its contradictory implementation in the two world city related nodes of Sandton and the inner city, which are discussed in detail. Intricate political dynamics have ensured that ‘world city-isation’ in Johannesburg has been localised through an ongoing engagement with the particular political and developmental requirements of post-Apartheid reconstruction.

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