Primate City

BANGKOK: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF A HYPERURBANIZED PRIMATE CITY Gerald W. Fry "The rapid expansion of a deteriorated environment and high social costs are the most obvious and immediate results of this overconcentration process. Eventually, the public investment on the expansion of urban infrastructure will reach a point of diminishing returns. Urban problems can bring national development to the edge of failure. This would be an appalling situation indeed!" Vimolsiddhi Horayangkura1 "Hyperurbanization signifies a prolonged condition of superheated urban growth." John Friedmann2 Bangkok, perhaps more than any other major world metropolis, represents a primate city. It is forty times larger than Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city, and dominates Thai political, economic, and intellectual life. Bangkok is simultaneously Thailand's castle, market, and temple.3 Once known as the "Venice of the East," Bangkok has changed dramatically from the tranquil pre-modern days of Joseph Conrad and W. Somerset Maugham. Lynch has emphasized the importance of a city's image.4 Bangkok has diverse images. The Thais refer to it as Krungthep ... meaning City of Angels. In fact, modern Bangkok with its sprawling laissez faire urban development does indeed resemble its American namesake, Los Angeles. Some Thais have called modern Bangkok a concrete jungle.5 Foreign visitors to Bangkok in the 1940s and 1950s would hardly recognize the thriving metropolis of the 1980s with a population of over six million. Prior to 1960, Bangkok had almost no buildings over five stories. Today numerous skyscrapers house the offices of transnational corporations and international agencies.

Gerald W. Fry is Assistant Director of the International Studies Program at the University of Oregon.

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Despite Bangkok's modernization, it also retains traditional images. Sternstein in conducting research on Bangkok's image, found that Wat Phra Keo was the most common image among Thais interviewed.6 This is