Knowledge Cities

Francisco Carrillo, Francisco Carrillo

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781136390234
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Betriebswirtschaft
• Categoria: Business allgemein

Knowledge Cities are cities that possess an economy driven by high value-added exports created through research, technology, and brainpower. In other words, these are cities in which both the private and the public sectors value knowledge, nurture knowledge, spend money on supporting knowledge dissemination and discovery (ie learning and innovation) and harness knowledge to create products and services that add value and create wealth. Currently there are 65 urban development programs worldwide formally designated as "knowledge cities." Knowledge-based cities fall under a new area of academic research entitled Knowledge-Based Development, which brings together research in urban development and urban studies and planning with knowledge management and intellectual capital.In this book, Francisco Javier Carillo of the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) brings together a group of distinguished scholars to outline the theory, development, and realities of knowledge cities. Based on knowledge-based development, the book shows how knowledge can be and is placed at the center of city planning and economic development to enable knowledge flows and innovation to provide a sustainable environment for high value-added products and services.

Part One: Approaches

Chapter 1

An Emerging Pattern of Successful Knowledge Cities’ Main Features

Kostas Ergazakis, Kostas Metaxiotis and John Psarras, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Introduction

Over the past twenty years, there has been intensive discussions about the importance of knowledge management (KM) in the business world. Nowadays, knowledge is considered one of the most valuable assets of an enterprise, which has to be managed efficiently and effectively in order to gain a competitive advantage in the knowledge economy era (Ergazakis et al., 2004a).

Knowledge management has evolved into a strategic management approach, finding application not only in the business world but also in other areas such as education, government, and healthcare. The fact that major international organizations—such as the European Commission, the World Bank, the United Nations Organization and the OECD—have adopted KM frameworks in their strategic directions regarding global development clearly indicates that a new link exists between knowledge management and knowledge-based development (Carrillo, 2002, 2004; Metaxiotis and Psarras, 2004a, b).

This new link created the appropriate environment for the advent of the “knowledge city” concept that, nowadays, is a topic of high interest and discussion. Many cities globally claim themselves as being already knowledge cities while at the same time other cities have elaborated strategic and action plans in order to become one. However, as it also happened with the early stages of evolution of KM (Rubenstein-Montano et al., 2001), there is neither a coherent framework nor a unified methodology for the design and implementation of successful knowledge cities. The real success of knowledge cities is still under investigation in the research community.

Consequently, the identification of the characteristics that a successful knowledge city should have in real practice is more than necessary nowadays. This chapter aims to present and analyze these characteristics through an empirical evaluation of several case studies that have been successfully put in real practice. The key findings of this study are expressed as preliminary conclusions that may be helpful in building successful knowledge cities. Whether each case study supports these conclusions or not is discussed.

Key Concepts of Knowledge Cities: A Brief Overview

Basic Definitions

The concept of knowledge city is very broad and may refer to all aspects of social, economic, and cultural life of a city. According to Ergazakis et al. (2004b), “A knowledge city is a city that aims at a knowledge-based development, by encouraging the continuous creation, sharing, evaluation, renewal and update of knowledge. This can be achieved through the continuous interaction between its citizens themselves and at the same time between them and other cities’ citizens. The citizens’ knowledge-sharing culture as well as the city’s appropriate design, IT networks and infrastructures support these interactions.” This definition is also illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1

The Knowledge City Concept. Source: Adapted from Ergazakis et al., 2004b

The process of developing a knowledge city is neither quick nor simple. Consequently, any effort to develop a knowledge city should have assured the active support of the entire society, i.e., local government, citizens, private sector, organizations, universities, etc. For this purpose, an in-depth analysis of the current situation, definition of a vision and strategy, and implementation of an action plan are required.

Main Benefits

Forecasts for future cities tend to take for granted the continuity of the industrial capitalist model that became dominant by the end of the 20th century. Cities, which are developing based on this model, become bigger and bigger, demanding increasingly greater inputs and generating growing outputs and waste. The end prospect for any such approach is inevitably the environmental, social, and economical collapse, as cities surpass the manageable limits for superimposed growth (Carrillo, 2004). It is obvious that this model of development is no longer functional. On the contrary, the advantages of knowledge-based development for human societies have been particularly emphasized in the literature during the beginning of the 21st century (Carrillo, 2002, 2004; Malone and Yohe, 2002). This development is environmentally sustainable, economically equitable, and socially responsible.

In this context, the main advantage of a knowledge city is that, by definition, it functions in such a way that is in favor of its knowledge-based development. The benefits of a knowledge city, on a more local scale, are the following:

• strong dynamics of innovation across all sectors of economic and social activity;

• better educational services;

• citizens are actively involved in their city’s development, its identity, and its unique character;

• a more sustainable economy;

• creation of a tolerant environment toward minorities and immigrants, etc. (see Ergazakis et al., 2004b, for further details).

Moreover, a knowledge city contributes to the better functioning of democracy, by online knowledge-sharing among all citizens, by the provision of inexpensive, realtime access to consistent, up-to-date information facilities, by providing support for online debates, etc. The “digital divide” is replaced with “digital inclusion” and the benefits of technology flow to all members of the community.

Case Studies: Six Successful Knowledge Cities

Our study includes the analysis of six cities that are considered successful knowledge cities globally.

Barcelona (Ploeger, 2001)

In 1999 the Barcelona City Council, being aware of the new challenges imposed by the knowledge society, designed a strategic plan for the development of the city (Barcelona, 1999). The main target was to place Barcelona into the leading group of urban regions in the new information and knowledge society of the 21st century. A general council and an executive board were appointed as responsible for the implementation of the plan. All vital agencies in Barcelona were committed to this main goal and participated in the executive board with more than 215 representatives.

The executive board formalized the contents of the strategic plan, defined performance indicators, and identified which institutions would be responsible for implementation of the priority actions. Five strategic lines were chosen, with main points being “knowledge” and “own strengths” of Barcelona. Strategic line three involved the concept of “city of knowledge.” It must be noted that in this strategic plan, culture was outlined as being the “motor of a knowledge city.” A new councilor was added to the city’s political structure, to work horizontally within the city administration and to be responsible for the project called “City of Knowledge.” Its main task was to promote the development of Barcelona as a knowledge city, to make this concept an integral part of the policies of other departments—culture, tourism, and urban development—and to mobilize the entire system of stakeholders. Today, 1.6 million residents and more than 200 institutions are involved in developing and implementing the strategy (Montréal, 2003).

Private sector’s initiatives and actions were important to the success of the whole effort. The City of Barcelona stimulated the private sector with two types of measures: by providing the necessary infrastructure—advanced communication networks, energy infrastructure, transport systems, etc.—and by encouraging the development of buildings for “knowledge businesses.” Barcelona Activa, an autonomous company fully sponsored by the City Hall and responsible for the overall economic development of Barcelona, implemented a series of projects related to the “City of Knowledge” strategy (see Ploeger, 2001 for further details). Today, Barcelona is considered as one of the most successful knowledge cities globally (Montréal, 2003; Amidon and Davis, 2004).

Stockholm

The city of Stockholm worked in order to bring together the city, the business community, and the neighboring towns of central Sweden on a common agenda so as to make Stockholm the most exciting region in northern Europe. This agenda involved a series of measures, under the headings “Green City,” “Knowledge City,” “Events City,” “Design City,” and “IT City,” and it also included an investment of €2 billion primarily in infrastructure and housing.

Under the heading of “Knowledge City,” Stockholm is focusing on the development of the fields of biotechnology and biomedicine, in which it is already a European leader. In general, Stockholm is considered as the headquarters of some of the world’s most important companies in high-technology sectors. The economic development policies are very knowledge oriented and aim to enhance the service provision toward innovative and new young entrepreneurs (Ploeger, 2001).

The mayor is cooperating with the University and with the business community to create a new urban development area, in the northern part of the city, with almost a thousand new working positions and new residential areas. This “Knowledge city for innovation” model is an integrated model combining the functions of a science park with city functions. This city section will have science, technology, and supporting activities as well as everyday city functions and residential areas side-by-side, and they are physically integrated. The cornerstones of this model are

• world-class science in several fields, as a basis for multidisciplinary collaborative efforts;

• research, innovation, and commercial activities exist in close proximity;

• natural meeting places, functioning as innovation engines;

• location attractive to international scientists and businessmen; and

• easy access thanks to excellent public transportation.

In 2004, Stockholm achieved a position as one of the world’s most popular locations for congresses and other events. The city is also an international leader in IT and telecommunications. Moreover, in 2004 one of the city’s municipal housing companies decided to provide access to low-cost broadband services to 90,000 citizens. Today, Stockholmers are already the most connected population globally.

Munich (City of Munich, 2003)

There are many different clusters in Munich, consisting of research and development establishments for the documentation and transfer of knowledge. Thanks to its flourishing business environment, Munich enables the continuous transformation of knowledge into business ideas and activities, attracts people with different qualifications, and in this way, mutually advances knowledge and its implementation.

Numerous companies, institutions, and organizations are dealing professionally with knowledge. They produce, organize, transmit or store knowledge. Munich is also the center of many public administration organizations, services, and supplies, mainly those provided by the municipality and also by the state of Bavaria, the federal government, etc. The departments and service centers of the city gather knowledge in important areas for the population and for the companies. Moreover, important public corporations and interest groups from the business sector are located in Munich. They function as contacts, advisers, and knowledge pools for their members. This knowledge is available through the Internet. The whole city is equipped with broadband Internet connections, and the ratio of connections to the Internet is higher than any other major German city.

Research and development in universities, companies, and specialized institutions have a distinguished tradition in Munich. Research and knowledge-intensive firms are grouped into a variety of clusters such as...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Part One: Approaches
• Part Two: Experiences
• Part Three: Perspectives
• List of Contributors
• Index