Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
is important for future urban growth. However, the accumulation of such features
alone is not seen as a justification for the label Knowledge City, as stressed by one
of the leading advocates in the field.
No urban development project, however strategic, justifies the use of the Knowledge City
label if it aims primarily at economic development, or can be described in terms of available
techno-economic development frameworks….for they fail to account for most of the dis-
tinctive value dimensions of knowledge-based production and overall social worth. (Carillo
2006
, p. xiii)
This restriction of the Knowledge City concept to the deliberate and
continuous
fostering of knowledge activity
, rather than only its concentration in area, does seem
rather extreme, for even in places where this type of process occurs there are many
people employed in parts of the city that are clearly not knowledge workers. The
requirements suggest that the criteria that have been established for a Knowledge
City covering the whole urban area may be better seen as essentially aspirational,
since they will rarely be completely attained. After all, the historical record shows
that centres of invention and innovation are subsequently superseded and do not
last for ever. Hence it might be useful to consider one subset of the ideas, such as
Knowledge Clusters, as being more practical, describing areas
within
some cities
where continuous inventive and innovative activity are concentrated, nurtured and
developed.
Finally, it must also be emphasized that cities lie within the jurisdictional regime
of their countries, which create most of the major laws, regulations and institu-
tions within which urban places operate. This usually makes it difficult for a city
to improve all relevant aspects of its own selective environment; only city-states,
such as Singapore, or special administrative regions like Hong Kong, represent real
exceptions. So not all of the knowledge factors identified above can be created or
influenced by the city government alone; progress will usually only occur by the
involvement of multiple stakeholders and by agreement of higher levels of govern-
ment, unless new powers are given to cities or learning strategies are followed (see
Chap. 16). In the creation of a more purposeful and endogamous city development,
the need for an active role by the state is also important, for only national govern-
ments have the resources to provide funding and encouraging basic research. Yet
progress towards Knowledge Cities, or Knowledge Clusters within these cities, is
more likely to be achieved by the state and individual cities acting in what Euro-
pean Union regional experts call an
animateur
approach, namely through evalua-
tion, guidance, partnership, encouragement and even finance of basic knowledge
activities, and improving the key parts of a city's capital systems, as outlined in
Fig.
11.2
. Many believe this is likely to achieve more success than the state adopt-
ing either a directed approach by choosing firms, or by the
dirigeste
, state-providing
tradition, although the role of government in creating and financing basic research
must not be downplayed. Yet whichever approach is used, the policies adopted must
be firmly based on an understanding of the many factors that influence the location
and character of inventive and innovative activities and especially the extent to
which cities are able to provide a viable and supportive selective environment for
knowledge development.
