ABSTRACT
Despite differences between the Global North and South, globalisation can work to constitute interdependencies manifest in claims to the exceptionality of world cities that act as exemplars for best practice. How contemporary pressures on cities in relation to globalisation and the development of capitalism shape aspirations and expectations of urban development is of central importance for understanding and building alternatives. This chapter examines how the promise of the knowledge economy is mediated through the politics of global capitalism. Where global flows seem to favour the content of the knowledge economy over the contexts of its application, places remain vital to realise its potential. Hence, we see how context both matters and has been simultaneously devalued in the search for knowledge-based advantage. As ideas circulate around the globe, this creates ambivalence between the exogenous influences of the promise of the knowledge economy and its endogenous realisation manifest in a game of scales.
