- Email: [email protected]
Introduction: The Century of Knowledge Cities
Introduction: The Century of Knowledge Cities Francisco Javier Carrillo
Few aspects of today’s world may characterize better the dawn of the new millenium than the transformation of regions and cities into knowledge societies. The evolutionary significance of both the definite urbanization of the world’s population and, above all, the experience upgrade of urban life in post-industrial economies is only beginning to be realized: the 21st century society is post-industrial, the Knowledge City is its horizon.1 On the one hand, the 21st century is being identified as the Century of Cities.2 While massive emigration of rural populations into towns started with the Industrial Revolution, this is still an ongoing process even if very brief from a historical perspective. The couple of centuries since account for only about 0.5% of human existence on earth.3 Yet, as recently as the 1980s, total urban population worldwide was less than 30%. Just now, the world’s population living in cities is overcoming the 50% mark and is expected to become 75% by 2025 (a percentage already reached by most developed countries). Hence, the definite urbanization of mankind is happening right now, after 40,000 years of the appearance of our species. This is indeed the Century of Cities: “The urbanization of human experience is, as a dominant phenomenon, a reality of the new millenium.”4
1 Paraphrasing the opening sentence of Françoise Choay’s tour-de-force of modern urbanism, L’Urbanisme, Utopies et réalité. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1965: “The industrial society is urban. The city is its horizon.” 2 Charles Landry, The Creative City. London: Earthscan, 2000, p. xiii. 3 F. J. Carrillo, Capital cities: A taxonomy of capita accounts for knowledge cities, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 8, No. 5, October 2004, p. 29. 4 Ibid.
xi
xii
Francisco Javier Carrillo
On the other hand, the 21st century has also been identified as the Century of Knowledge5 or the Century of Learning.6 After World War II, over 50% of GDP in an increasing number of industrialized countries moved consistently from material-based to being knowledge-based. In the global arena, the United Nations,7 the European Union,8 the OECD,9 and the World Bank10 have all stressed the critical importance of the Knowledge Economy as a global reality established over the turn of the century. Taichi Sakaiya11 and Peter Drucker,12 amongst others, foresaw the end-of-century advent of the Knowledge Economy as the grounds for the foundation of the Knowledge Society. According to Sakaiya, we are inaugurating a new era: “It is my contention that we are entering a new phase of civilization in which the value attached to knowledge is the driving force.”13 We have entered the Century of Knowledge. This book is about the convergence of these two emerging conditions of human civilization at the dawn of the new millenium: The Century of Knowledge Cities. Global urbanization and the advent of the Knowledge Society constitute each an unprecedented and complex reality. Each has exposed the limits of conventional disciplinary approaches to urban development and to social value creation, respectively. Both together, integrated in the Knowledge City, constitute one of the most complex phenomena ever faced by mankind and probably a critical one for its future evolution. Conceptual and empirical studies on Knowledge Cities constitute an emerging, pre-paradigmatic, and multidisciplinary field. First, it is emerging insofar as not only a child of the new century, but also a fast growing one. The substantial amount of resources available now on this subject, as well as the existence of most elements of an institutionalized discipline (specialized journals, professional communities and networks, dedicated conferences) testify to that.14 The Knowledge Cities Clearinghouse (www.knowledgecities.com) compiles lists of (i) glossaries, (ii) Knowledge-Based Development (KBD) initiatives, (iii) associations and international organizations, (iv) urban KBD value dimensions, (v) rankings, (vi) special editions, (vii) bibliography, and (viii) electronic references, related to Knowledge Cities (KCs) and KBD. 5 Taichi Sakaiya, The Knowledge-Value Revolution or a History of the Future. New York: Kondasha, 1991, pp. xvii, 58. Also Peter Drucker, The Post-Capitalist Society, New York, Harper-Collins, 1994, pp. 3, 6–9 and Management Challenges for the 21st Century, New York: Harper-Collins, 1999, p. 135. 6 N. Longworth, Making Lifelong Learning Work: Learning Cities for a Learning Century. London: Kogan Page, 1999 (p. 29). 7 Human Development Report 2001. New York: UNDP, 2001. 8 Innovation Policy in a Knowledge-Based Economy. Brussels: European Commission, 2000. 9 The Knowledge-Based Economy. Paris: OECD, 1996. 10 World Development Report 1998/99. Washington: The World Bank, 1999. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Sakaiya, op. cit., p. 58. 14 Cfr. González, Alvarado, and Martinez: A compilation of resources on knowledge cities and knowledge-based development. Journal of Knowledge Management, Special Issue on “Knowledge-based Development II: Knowledge Cities,” Vol. 8, No. 5, 2004, pp. 107–127. From this work, the Knowledge Cities Clearinghouse originated.
Introduction: The Century of Knowledge Cities
Second, the emerging field of KCs can be characterized as pre-paradigmatic. While the interest on KCs is growing rapidly, the field still lacks a consensus regarding appropriate conceptual and methodological frameworks. Third, the new field builds upon established and novel disciplines. While KBD is a convergence of Economic Growth Theory and Knowledge Management (KM), KCs—a subfield of KBD—are a convergence of Urban Studies and Planning with KM. Both, like all KM, are founded on the Sciences of Knowledge (history, anthropology, biology, psychology, economy, political science, and sociology of knowledge). KCs, in particular, also benefit from geography and several areas of technology. This book aims at contributing to shape the emerging field of KCs by collecting contributions from diverse disciplines, using alternative frameworks and methods, looking at different aspects of the same complex phenomenon. In doing so, the threads of dialog emerging in this book build on prior editorial projects carried out with the purpose to bride KM and New Growth Theory15 on the one hand, KM and Urban Studies16 on the other. Several of the authors of this volume also contributed to those exercises. But, what is so special about KCs? What is so distinctive that requires a dedicated community and a new discipline? It would be worth if this book helped to answer these questions alone. In KCs, the city is the unit of analysis and KBD is the differentiating factor. Too often, the concept of KC is reduced to a constituent element, notably technopoles and innovation clusters, generally focused on regional GP growth. Yet, none of these concepts requires the idea of KC, since they all have existed independently and have evolved on their own accord. None of them aims primarily at the value dimensions, which are the raison d’etre of KM and KBD. In consequence, no urban development project, however strategic, justifies the use of the KC label if it aims primarily at economic development, or can be described in terms of available technoeconomic development frameworks.17 This is in elementary consistency with the very concept of KBD as opposed to traditional economic growth theory and the now unacceptable dychotomy between economic welfare and overall social value. The concepts of KBD and KC follow the realization that conventional economic analysis and economic growth theory fail to account for most of the distinctive value dimensions of knowledge-based production and overall social worth. It is the delibrated attempt by social agents to understand and manage
15 See, e.g.: Journal of Knowledge Management, Special Issue on “Knowledge Based Development” (Vol. 6, No. 2, 2002). This JKM SI will be published annually as from 2006. 16 See, e.g.: Urban Studies, Special Issues on “Cities, Enterprises and Society at the Eve of the 21st Century” (Vol. 32, No. 2, 1995) and “The Knowledge-based City” (Vol. 39, Nos. 5–6, 2002); and also the Journal of Knowledge Management, Special Issue on “Knowledge Based Development-II: Knowledge Cities” (Vol. 8, No. 5, 2004). 17 They have their own unquestionable importance and have been quite ably dealt with. For example, Nicos Komninos (Intelligent Cities, London: Spon, 2002) provides a very complete account of the origin and perspectives of the technopolis, while Margaret O’Mara (Cities of Knowledge, Princeton University Press, 2005) draws from an analysis of Cold War Science a number of lessons on the development successful technopoles in the US, such as Silicon Valley.
xiii
xiv
Francisco Javier Carrillo
such universe of value that characterizes KBD and KCs. Nevertheless, the novelty of the field implies a transition between the received, segmented approaches to KCs in terms of some of its constituent elements (notably Knowledge Infrastructure and Human Capital) and the emerging, systemic approach in terms of social value systems and holistic urban strategies. Contributions to this volume have been selected with the aim to represent the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches shaping the new discipline. From the empirical, analytical, and quantitative, to the conceptual, systemic, and axiological, all contributions form together a rich mosaic telling us more about KCs than any of its constituent chapters. The transition from the former socioeconomic analysis of KC components (technopoles, clusters, networks, etc.) to urban value systems as conceptual units is also evident. The book is organized in three parts. Part I: Approaches contains several attempts to making sense of KCs. Chapter 1 by Ergazakis, Metaxiotis, and Psarras tries to identify some characteristics of successful KCs while Chapter 2 by Martínez compares existing frameworks and practices with regard to value dimensions involved. Matthiessen, Schwartz, and Find look in Chapter 3 at patterns of scientific productivity of urban research centers worldwide. In Chapter 4, Carrillo provides a taxonomy of accounts for social knowledge capital. Edvinsson, in Chapter 5, develops a view of KCs as communities of Intellectual Capital Entrepreneurs. Finally, Chapter 6 by Flores describes a Knowledge-Based Strategy process for developing KCs. Part II: Experiences contains a number of KC-related initiatives at various levels. Chapter 7 by Wong, Choi, and Millar assesses the evolution of the citystate of Singapore into a KC. Azua, in Chapter 8, recounts the role of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum in the KBD of the City and the whole Basque Country. In Chapter 9, Levin-Sagi, Pasher, and Hertzman describe the process of reinvention of Holon in Israel as a City of Children. The role of universities in the KBD of Manchester is explored by García in Chapter 10, while Chapter 11 by Chatzkel looks at the potential of Phoenix as KC and how this could be leveraged. In Chapter 12, Carrillo exemplifies with the case of Monterrey the taxonomy of urban capital introduced in Chapter 4. In turn, Jelcic explains in Chapter 13 how the improvement of city-owned companies in Rijeka, Croatia, have contributed to urban, regional, and national Intellectual Captial. Closing this part, Chapter 14 by Bidault-Waddington provides an aesthetical audit of Christiania in Copenhagen as a “city within a city.” Closing the book, Part III: Perspectives looks at some emerging issues in the context of KCs. Chapter 15 by Chen, analyzes the impact of urban location on the relative success of three science parks in China. In Chapter 16, Rubalcaba and Garrido assess the significance of urban business services concentration in Europe for KBD policies; while Lambooy, in Chapter 17, provides an evolutionary perspective of urban Innovation and Knowledge Dissemination. On a different ground, Martínez constructs in Chapter 18 a competence profile of the Knowledge Citizen while in Chapter 19 Dvir offers a conversational and pictorial account of the KC from “the user’s” perspective. Finally, Carrillo in Chapter 20 addresses the question of what the essence of living in a City might be in the Knowledge Society.
Introduction: The Century of Knowledge Cities
In carrying out this collective effort, diversity was favored from the nation, gender, culture, discipline, sector, theory, method, and style insofar as possible. We aimed at the goal that this book somehow echoed the wealth of possibilities that are the fabric of KCs. I want to thank, first of all, each of the 27 authors who have vested their Intellectual Capital into this Knowledge Venture. Their collective wisdom constitutes probably the most complete and state-of-the-art account on KCs available up to now. I also want to thank Karen Maloney, our Publisher, Dennis McGonagle, Assistant Editor, Heather Furrow, Production Project Manager, and Priyaa H. Menon, Project Manager, for their professionalism and continued support in carrying out this project. They made the demands of editorial work a joyful experience. I thank Mr. Juan Ignacio Vidarte, Director of the Guggenheim-Bilbao Museum, and Erika Barahona-Ede, Photographer and Rights and Reproductions Manager, for the permission to use a GBM photograph in the cover and their assistance in the process. I hope all of our readers, both citizens and decision-makers, urban planners and policy analysts, academicians and practitioners, scientists and artists, students and professionals, find in these pages a mind-provoking and enabling welcome to the Knowledge City.
xv
Few aspects of today’s world may characterize better the dawn of the new millenium than the transformation of regions and cities into knowledge societies. The evolutionary significance of both the definite urbanization of the world’s population and, above all, the experience upgrade of urban life in post-industrial economies is only beginning to be realized: the 21st century society is post-industrial, the Knowledge City is its horizon.1 On the one hand, the 21st century is being identified as the Century of Cities.2 While massive emigration of rural populations into towns started with the Industrial Revolution, this is still an ongoing process even if very brief from a historical perspective. The couple of centuries since account for only about 0.5% of human existence on earth.3 Yet, as recently as the 1980s, total urban population worldwide was less than 30%. Just now, the world’s population living in cities is overcoming the 50% mark and is expected to become 75% by 2025 (a percentage already reached by most developed countries). Hence, the definite urbanization of mankind is happening right now, after 40,000 years of the appearance of our species. This is indeed the Century of Cities: “The urbanization of human experience is, as a dominant phenomenon, a reality of the new millenium.”4
1 Paraphrasing the opening sentence of Françoise Choay’s tour-de-force of modern urbanism, L’Urbanisme, Utopies et réalité. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1965: “The industrial society is urban. The city is its horizon.” 2 Charles Landry, The Creative City. London: Earthscan, 2000, p. xiii. 3 F. J. Carrillo, Capital cities: A taxonomy of capita accounts for knowledge cities, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 8, No. 5, October 2004, p. 29. 4 Ibid.
xi
xii
Francisco Javier Carrillo
On the other hand, the 21st century has also been identified as the Century of Knowledge5 or the Century of Learning.6 After World War II, over 50% of GDP in an increasing number of industrialized countries moved consistently from material-based to being knowledge-based. In the global arena, the United Nations,7 the European Union,8 the OECD,9 and the World Bank10 have all stressed the critical importance of the Knowledge Economy as a global reality established over the turn of the century. Taichi Sakaiya11 and Peter Drucker,12 amongst others, foresaw the end-of-century advent of the Knowledge Economy as the grounds for the foundation of the Knowledge Society. According to Sakaiya, we are inaugurating a new era: “It is my contention that we are entering a new phase of civilization in which the value attached to knowledge is the driving force.”13 We have entered the Century of Knowledge. This book is about the convergence of these two emerging conditions of human civilization at the dawn of the new millenium: The Century of Knowledge Cities. Global urbanization and the advent of the Knowledge Society constitute each an unprecedented and complex reality. Each has exposed the limits of conventional disciplinary approaches to urban development and to social value creation, respectively. Both together, integrated in the Knowledge City, constitute one of the most complex phenomena ever faced by mankind and probably a critical one for its future evolution. Conceptual and empirical studies on Knowledge Cities constitute an emerging, pre-paradigmatic, and multidisciplinary field. First, it is emerging insofar as not only a child of the new century, but also a fast growing one. The substantial amount of resources available now on this subject, as well as the existence of most elements of an institutionalized discipline (specialized journals, professional communities and networks, dedicated conferences) testify to that.14 The Knowledge Cities Clearinghouse (www.knowledgecities.com) compiles lists of (i) glossaries, (ii) Knowledge-Based Development (KBD) initiatives, (iii) associations and international organizations, (iv) urban KBD value dimensions, (v) rankings, (vi) special editions, (vii) bibliography, and (viii) electronic references, related to Knowledge Cities (KCs) and KBD. 5 Taichi Sakaiya, The Knowledge-Value Revolution or a History of the Future. New York: Kondasha, 1991, pp. xvii, 58. Also Peter Drucker, The Post-Capitalist Society, New York, Harper-Collins, 1994, pp. 3, 6–9 and Management Challenges for the 21st Century, New York: Harper-Collins, 1999, p. 135. 6 N. Longworth, Making Lifelong Learning Work: Learning Cities for a Learning Century. London: Kogan Page, 1999 (p. 29). 7 Human Development Report 2001. New York: UNDP, 2001. 8 Innovation Policy in a Knowledge-Based Economy. Brussels: European Commission, 2000. 9 The Knowledge-Based Economy. Paris: OECD, 1996. 10 World Development Report 1998/99. Washington: The World Bank, 1999. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Sakaiya, op. cit., p. 58. 14 Cfr. González, Alvarado, and Martinez: A compilation of resources on knowledge cities and knowledge-based development. Journal of Knowledge Management, Special Issue on “Knowledge-based Development II: Knowledge Cities,” Vol. 8, No. 5, 2004, pp. 107–127. From this work, the Knowledge Cities Clearinghouse originated.
Introduction: The Century of Knowledge Cities
Second, the emerging field of KCs can be characterized as pre-paradigmatic. While the interest on KCs is growing rapidly, the field still lacks a consensus regarding appropriate conceptual and methodological frameworks. Third, the new field builds upon established and novel disciplines. While KBD is a convergence of Economic Growth Theory and Knowledge Management (KM), KCs—a subfield of KBD—are a convergence of Urban Studies and Planning with KM. Both, like all KM, are founded on the Sciences of Knowledge (history, anthropology, biology, psychology, economy, political science, and sociology of knowledge). KCs, in particular, also benefit from geography and several areas of technology. This book aims at contributing to shape the emerging field of KCs by collecting contributions from diverse disciplines, using alternative frameworks and methods, looking at different aspects of the same complex phenomenon. In doing so, the threads of dialog emerging in this book build on prior editorial projects carried out with the purpose to bride KM and New Growth Theory15 on the one hand, KM and Urban Studies16 on the other. Several of the authors of this volume also contributed to those exercises. But, what is so special about KCs? What is so distinctive that requires a dedicated community and a new discipline? It would be worth if this book helped to answer these questions alone. In KCs, the city is the unit of analysis and KBD is the differentiating factor. Too often, the concept of KC is reduced to a constituent element, notably technopoles and innovation clusters, generally focused on regional GP growth. Yet, none of these concepts requires the idea of KC, since they all have existed independently and have evolved on their own accord. None of them aims primarily at the value dimensions, which are the raison d’etre of KM and KBD. In consequence, no urban development project, however strategic, justifies the use of the KC label if it aims primarily at economic development, or can be described in terms of available technoeconomic development frameworks.17 This is in elementary consistency with the very concept of KBD as opposed to traditional economic growth theory and the now unacceptable dychotomy between economic welfare and overall social value. The concepts of KBD and KC follow the realization that conventional economic analysis and economic growth theory fail to account for most of the distinctive value dimensions of knowledge-based production and overall social worth. It is the delibrated attempt by social agents to understand and manage
15 See, e.g.: Journal of Knowledge Management, Special Issue on “Knowledge Based Development” (Vol. 6, No. 2, 2002). This JKM SI will be published annually as from 2006. 16 See, e.g.: Urban Studies, Special Issues on “Cities, Enterprises and Society at the Eve of the 21st Century” (Vol. 32, No. 2, 1995) and “The Knowledge-based City” (Vol. 39, Nos. 5–6, 2002); and also the Journal of Knowledge Management, Special Issue on “Knowledge Based Development-II: Knowledge Cities” (Vol. 8, No. 5, 2004). 17 They have their own unquestionable importance and have been quite ably dealt with. For example, Nicos Komninos (Intelligent Cities, London: Spon, 2002) provides a very complete account of the origin and perspectives of the technopolis, while Margaret O’Mara (Cities of Knowledge, Princeton University Press, 2005) draws from an analysis of Cold War Science a number of lessons on the development successful technopoles in the US, such as Silicon Valley.
xiii
xiv
Francisco Javier Carrillo
such universe of value that characterizes KBD and KCs. Nevertheless, the novelty of the field implies a transition between the received, segmented approaches to KCs in terms of some of its constituent elements (notably Knowledge Infrastructure and Human Capital) and the emerging, systemic approach in terms of social value systems and holistic urban strategies. Contributions to this volume have been selected with the aim to represent the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches shaping the new discipline. From the empirical, analytical, and quantitative, to the conceptual, systemic, and axiological, all contributions form together a rich mosaic telling us more about KCs than any of its constituent chapters. The transition from the former socioeconomic analysis of KC components (technopoles, clusters, networks, etc.) to urban value systems as conceptual units is also evident. The book is organized in three parts. Part I: Approaches contains several attempts to making sense of KCs. Chapter 1 by Ergazakis, Metaxiotis, and Psarras tries to identify some characteristics of successful KCs while Chapter 2 by Martínez compares existing frameworks and practices with regard to value dimensions involved. Matthiessen, Schwartz, and Find look in Chapter 3 at patterns of scientific productivity of urban research centers worldwide. In Chapter 4, Carrillo provides a taxonomy of accounts for social knowledge capital. Edvinsson, in Chapter 5, develops a view of KCs as communities of Intellectual Capital Entrepreneurs. Finally, Chapter 6 by Flores describes a Knowledge-Based Strategy process for developing KCs. Part II: Experiences contains a number of KC-related initiatives at various levels. Chapter 7 by Wong, Choi, and Millar assesses the evolution of the citystate of Singapore into a KC. Azua, in Chapter 8, recounts the role of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum in the KBD of the City and the whole Basque Country. In Chapter 9, Levin-Sagi, Pasher, and Hertzman describe the process of reinvention of Holon in Israel as a City of Children. The role of universities in the KBD of Manchester is explored by García in Chapter 10, while Chapter 11 by Chatzkel looks at the potential of Phoenix as KC and how this could be leveraged. In Chapter 12, Carrillo exemplifies with the case of Monterrey the taxonomy of urban capital introduced in Chapter 4. In turn, Jelcic explains in Chapter 13 how the improvement of city-owned companies in Rijeka, Croatia, have contributed to urban, regional, and national Intellectual Captial. Closing this part, Chapter 14 by Bidault-Waddington provides an aesthetical audit of Christiania in Copenhagen as a “city within a city.” Closing the book, Part III: Perspectives looks at some emerging issues in the context of KCs. Chapter 15 by Chen, analyzes the impact of urban location on the relative success of three science parks in China. In Chapter 16, Rubalcaba and Garrido assess the significance of urban business services concentration in Europe for KBD policies; while Lambooy, in Chapter 17, provides an evolutionary perspective of urban Innovation and Knowledge Dissemination. On a different ground, Martínez constructs in Chapter 18 a competence profile of the Knowledge Citizen while in Chapter 19 Dvir offers a conversational and pictorial account of the KC from “the user’s” perspective. Finally, Carrillo in Chapter 20 addresses the question of what the essence of living in a City might be in the Knowledge Society.
Introduction: The Century of Knowledge Cities
In carrying out this collective effort, diversity was favored from the nation, gender, culture, discipline, sector, theory, method, and style insofar as possible. We aimed at the goal that this book somehow echoed the wealth of possibilities that are the fabric of KCs. I want to thank, first of all, each of the 27 authors who have vested their Intellectual Capital into this Knowledge Venture. Their collective wisdom constitutes probably the most complete and state-of-the-art account on KCs available up to now. I also want to thank Karen Maloney, our Publisher, Dennis McGonagle, Assistant Editor, Heather Furrow, Production Project Manager, and Priyaa H. Menon, Project Manager, for their professionalism and continued support in carrying out this project. They made the demands of editorial work a joyful experience. I thank Mr. Juan Ignacio Vidarte, Director of the Guggenheim-Bilbao Museum, and Erika Barahona-Ede, Photographer and Rights and Reproductions Manager, for the permission to use a GBM photograph in the cover and their assistance in the process. I hope all of our readers, both citizens and decision-makers, urban planners and policy analysts, academicians and practitioners, scientists and artists, students and professionals, find in these pages a mind-provoking and enabling welcome to the Knowledge City.
xv