ABSTRACT
Beginning in the 1990s, a global knowledge economy began to attract attention. Understanding the complex connections between universities, creativity, human capital and knowledge cities is of growing interest to researchers and urban managers. The creativity and vibrancy of a city enhances its prospects of being economically competitive. University City strategies that import branch campuses of prestigious universities strengthen the city's image as a student hub with a prominent knowledge economy that is good for the city's brand. New theoretical approaches will need to give significantly more credence to small-scale economic activity. New theoretical propositions and frameworks must re-align and re-balance the emphases of the past. Development in urbanizing Southeast Asia is the strengthening of the knowledge economy. Looking beyond the explicit role of universities, Southeast Asian nations have mixed approaches to the knowledge economy. Modern knowledge cities are the product of a period of accelerated growth in the research capacity of selected American universities fuelled by Cold War defence spending.
