The gleaming Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has put the Basque capital on the map of world cities and has exacerbated optimism among public officials worldwide about the role of spectacular architecture in urban renewal. This book - a theoretically-informed case study and a major synthesis of Bilbaos developments through the lens of globalization analyzes the Guggenheim project as the latest of Bilbaos globalization efforts, puts the project in the context of Bilbaos decades-long transformation and contends that Bilbaos positive economic performance since 1994 is not fundamentally due to the success of Frank Gehry's building, but rather to a complex array of causal processes that must be understood in the context of Bilbaos connections with the world economy and a changing world-system.The author argues that globalization processes in Bilbao are as old as the city itself and that the role of the State must be taken into account in order to explain the city's changing fortunes throughout the years. Globalization itself ought to be understood as a complex and variable network-like process with multiscalar nodes, an approach which is carefully theorized and empirically developed in this book. This is a volume in the "Current Research in Urban and Regional Studies Series". It takes into consideration Bilbao's social history and the complex relationships between local and global entities (regionalism v. state). It provides a socioeconomic analysis of the "Bilbao Effect".
Author(s): Gerardo del Cerro SantamarAa
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 226
Cover......Page 1
Bilbao: Basque Pathways to Globalization......Page 4
Copyright page......Page 5
About the Author......Page 8
Contents......Page 10
List of Tables and Graphs......Page 12
Acknowledgments......Page 14
Introduction: Bilbao –– A City on the Global Map......Page 18
A Conceptual Framework......Page 20
Toward a Relational, Place-Based Understanding of Globalization......Page 26
Levels of Analysis: Scaling the Global......Page 28
Complexity, Networks, and Globalization......Page 31
State Developmentalism and Globalization......Page 34
Pathways and Path-Dependence......Page 36
Key Questions......Page 40
Bilbao’s First Globalization — Foreign Trade Since the Late Middle Ages......Page 48
Trade Disputes in the Eighteenth Century......Page 52
Bilbao’s Second Globalization: Eighteenth Century Export-Led Development......Page 54
Iron Exports......Page 55
Wool Exports......Page 56
Crisis and De-Globalization in the Nineteenth Century......Page 57
Conclusions......Page 58
Introduction......Page 60
Preparing for Industrial Capitalism......Page 61
Export-Led Industrialization in Bilbao......Page 63
Negotiating Economic Growth......Page 66
Bilbao’s Third Globalization: 1900–1937......Page 68
De-Globalization and Autarchy in the Franco Years, 1937–1975......Page 70
Selling to the Protected Spanish Market......Page 71
Conclusions......Page 73
Introduction......Page 76
Fordism’s Crisis in Advanced Economies......Page 77
Economic Restructuring......Page 81
Toward a Socio-Spatially Fragmented Service Economy......Page 87
Conclusions......Page 91
Introduction......Page 96
Abandoibarra......Page 98
Bilbao Ria 2000 — An Urban Development Corporation......Page 101
Financing......Page 103
Project Development and Modification......Page 104
César Pelli’s Redesign......Page 109
Project Impacts......Page 112
Conclusions......Page 113
Introduction......Page 118
A Global Venture for Bilbao......Page 119
The Guggenheim Project......Page 122
The Controversies......Page 127
The Museum’s Success......Page 130
The Guggenheim Effect in Bilbao......Page 133
Tourist Flows......Page 134
The “Bilbao Effect” in the World......Page 138
Conclusions......Page 141
Introduction......Page 144
Basque Economy’s Trade Globalization......Page 145
Imports and Exports......Page 149
The Port of Bilbao as a Global Node......Page 153
Financial Globalization: The Banco de Bilbao Abroad......Page 158
Foreign Expansion after 1973......Page 162
The Latin American Expansion of the 1990s......Page 164
Conclusions......Page 166
Bilbao’s Comparative Advantage......Page 170
Bilbao’s Pathways to Globalization......Page 172
Political Globalization......Page 174
State Developmentalism and Globalization......Page 175
Post-industrial City or Emerging Global City-Region?......Page 177
Globalization and the Case of Bilbao......Page 180
Bibliography on Cities and Globalization......Page 184
Bibliography on Bilbao and the Basque Country......Page 210
Name Index......Page 224
Subject Index......Page 236
