Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The incremental potential of
existing higher education establishments
may also
be developed, by moving beyond seeing these places as learning centres, or even
research nodes, to a third phase, a focus on valorization as a major, not minor activ-
ity. This involves bringing the knowledge created in universities to market via pat-
ent development, engaging in research outsourced from large firms or government,
or creating new incubator units for product development by staff or graduates. The
process involves creating closer links to the local business sector so that networks
of mutual benefit can be established. These new roles of universities are helping to
transform their local urban economies although the process has already been impor-
tant in some places in the past. Perhaps it is not without significance that Detroit did
not create a major university, and focused so exclusively on the auto industry, so
that when the latter declined and many production units moved to other locations,
there was little ability to re-orientate the local economy. This failure, combined with
its social problems, has led to the massive decline of the city and to its declaration
of bankruptcy in 2013 (Martell
2012
; Binelli
2012
).
Studies of the new knowledge economy have drawn attention to the need to
create
contact and innovation sites
, not simply by increased numbers, but also in
their quality. Edvinsson (
2006
, p. 69) has reviewed such developments in Scan-
dinavian cities and argued that these new knowledge spaces (KS) should provide
a creative context, adding networking space and designs that help to enhance the
quality of personal relationships to encourage tacit information exchanges. These
spaces range from trade or service organizations for like-minded people to meet—
whether open-access formal ones, such as libraries and information centres, or epi-
sodic exhibitions and conferences to disseminate expertise—to informal meeting
places, such as the availability of cafes, bars and restaurants where people can meet
and discuss progress and plans. They include 'umbrella offices', places rented by
the hour or short periods that can be used by small and start-up companies. These
examples are based on a recognition of the need to encourage ways of fostering the
interchange of ideas in the tacit knowledge dimension through personal contacts,
creating the 'buzz', which is now seen as being essential to invention and innova-
tion. Adding these features reduces what Edvinsson (
2006
) called the 'friction cost
of knowledge flow' in cities, although it is clear that the provision of these physical
facilities only work if they also contain enough interactions and linkages, showing
that such attributes overlap with associational capital factors.
A focus on generating new employment alone must not obscure the
housing and
other needs
of knowledge and creative workers, ensuring that there are a range of
housing options at reasonable prices and distances from workplaces, as well as rec-
ognizing that residential needs will vary at different stages of a worker's life-cycle.
In the specific area of cultural activities, many creative artists are on low wage or
intermittent incomes, so affordable housing and working space is crucial. Histori-
cally these activities have often clustered in decaying and old premises unwanted by
most businesses, often in the inner city, but as redevelopment and gentrification has
occurred, these cultural workers get squeezed out. Amsterdam created the Broed-
plaatsan scheme in 2000 (BP) to address this problem. This does not actually sup-
ply low rent premises; instead it created a pro-active forum that initiated contacts
between various actors in the finance and building industries, as well as various
