Urban Knowledge and Innovation Spaces

The expansion of the knowledge economy, globalization, and economic competitiveness has highlighted the importance of knowledge and innovation in local economies worldwide. As a result, integrating knowledge generation and innovation considerations into urban planning and development processes has become a crucial agenda for establishing sustainable growth and long-term competitiveness in contemporary cities. Today, creating spaces that concentrate on knowledge generation and innovation is a priority for many cities across the globe.

Urban knowledge and innovation spaces are integrated centres of knowledge generation, learning, commercialization, and lifestyle. Put simply, they represent high-growth knowledge industry and worker clusters, and they distinguish the functional activity in an area, where the agglomeration of knowledge and technological activities has positive externalities for the rest of the city as well as for firms located there. These spaces are generally established with two primary objectives in mind: to serve as a seedbed for knowledge and technology, playing an incubator role in nurturing the development and growth of new, small, high-technology firms; and to act as a catalyst for regional economic development, promoting economic growth and contributing to the development of the city as a 'knowledge or innovative city'.

Urban Knowledge and Innovation Spaces contains chapters reporting findings on various aspects of urban knowledge and innovation spaces, such as urban planning and design, innovation systems, urban knowledge management, and regional science. It was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Urban Technology.