Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Morgan and Nauwelaers (
2003
) have stressed that the scale of unemployment in
many old industrial centres and regions has been so high that exogenous develop-
ments helped by government assistance to create jobs—only some of which will be
knowledge-based activities—will always be needed, since it will take time for the
new sectors to grow and be self-sustaining.
11.7.2
Developing the Vision
The development of a coherent and ultimately successful new vision for the city
must be integrative in several contexts. First it must involve a wide range of
stake-
holders
in the city, from individuals, firms, organizations, city officials and input
from higher levels of government, to ensure that the effort involves as many people
as possible and to develop a consensus on the way to proceed. Second, it is impor-
tant to ensure that there is widespread
understanding of the value of knowledge
and knowledge resources as a wealth-creating activity
for the city, frequently a
more difficult task than identifying material products created from factories. This
understanding should be shared by the general public, as well as by civic politicians
who are needed to provide leadership, and especially by planners, whose existing
rulebooks have often been found to slow down or even restrict new ways of devel-
opment. Third, the integrative process should be applied spatially, with
regional
perspectives
designed to involve other municipalities around often the politically
fragmented city-regions, one of the reasons for the development of New Region-
alism ideas discussed in Chap. 2. This will ensure that the functional unit of the
city-region as a whole is developed, rather than some areas being left behind, while
others accumulate all the future successes, a depressingly familiar pattern in the
administratively divided city-regions of many American cities in particular.
11.7.3
Creating the Plan
The first stage is an
evaluation of the various assets and disadvantages
of the city,
such as through the various dimensions of the Capital System approach (Fig.
11.2
),
focusing on those which help or hinder the creation of a knowledge-based economy.
The goal is to make city development less accidental, where growth occurs be-
cause of individual decisions made in various sectors of the economy—especially
by employment growth from exogamous sources that can just as easily be reversed
by distant corporate decision-makers. Instead it should be more intentional, with
a focus upon more endogamous or internal influences that stem from, or can be
influenced by, the city's own capital assets. Most reviewers of the knowledge-based
plans produced by various cities stress the necessity of a
clear focus
, identifying a
limited number of
niches with high growth potential
, rather than spreading effort
over many different sectors. It is also recognized that the various types of knowl-
edge activities need very different techniques and managerial capacities, so the
