Introduction

This book is about innovation, cities and regions. However, it approaches the subject via a substitution. The central premises on which our arguments are based are that (a) a theory of innovation is not feasible, since its prevision capacity would annihilate innovation itself, and (b) the quest for a theory of innovation can be replaced by the quest for understanding the environment for generating innovation. The substitution consequently lies in the assumption that we cannot predict the emergence of innovation and consequently manage it, but we can create environments within which innovation is generated; in other words that we can manage the environment rather than innovation itself. The more radical and disruptive innovation is, the more this substitution is necessary.