Rescaling the Developmental State: Competitive Shrinkage Governance and the Spatial Restructuring of Higher Education in South Korea

ABSTRACT

Against the backdrop of sustained demographic contraction across the Asia‐Pacific, the developmental state (DS) paradigm, long premised on growth, faces profound challenges. While existing research on shrinking regions focuses on urban planning, little attention has been paid to how the state restructures its spatial power under contraction. Drawing on South Korea's Regional Innovation‐centred University Support System (RISE) framework and “Glocal University 30” policy, this article examines how the DS adjusts its spatial governance logic by mobilising higher education as a territorial tool. Through a multi‐scalar textual analysis, the study finds that South Korea's reform constitutes a mechanism of spatial consolidation via competitive resource allocation. Under contractionary conditions, the state advances administrative rescaling: formally devolving power to local governments while intensifying central control through performance metrics and competitive funding. This creates a “differentiated survival structure” where flagship universities become regional anchor nodes while peripheral ones face accelerated decline. The article conceptualises this as “Competitive Shrinkage Governance.” These findings suggest that for Asia‐Pacific economies facing similar “post‐growth” demographic traps, the DS maintains spatial order through strategic institutional differentiation, offering critical lessons for regional governance in an era of demographic contraction.