ABSTRACT
The early 21st century is dominated by an almost compulsive race to find new pathways for city development. In twenty years we have witnessed a rapid flow of key ideas and concepts ranging, back and forth, from innovative cities (Simmie, 2003) to learning cities (Campbell, 2009) to creative cities (Scott, 2006) to knowledge cities (Carrillo, 2006) to resilient cities (Vale and Campanella, 2005) to smart cities (Hollands, 2008). Many cities have been changing according to these lines, and many local leaders have found new food for thought. However, at times, the new economic development strategies seem to range from pure rhetorical gimmicks to dynamic action, and it is often difficult to distinguish these two extremes. In this book, the “knowledge city” is used as a generic metaphor that describes the overall trend in the direction many cities are attempting to develop themselves. “City” refers here simply to an urban unit within administrative borders, while the concept of a city-region links a core city by functional ties to its hinterland. Functional ties generally include a combination of economic, housing market, travel-to-work, marketing, or retail catchment factors (Rodríguez-Pose, 2008). Depending on the governance system, a city-region may or may not have a shared administrative body. “City-region” is not a homogenous entity, or concept, with clear boundaries. This book does not aim to cover leadership in a city or city-region in its entirety but deals mainly with issues related to knowledge economy and development.
