ancient cities

394 Informational City
community and a pool of skilled and talented
people, a knowledge city will enjoy robust growth
at way above average rates.
Technology Parks as Essential
Knowledge Clusters
The ongoing transformation of advanced economies
from manufacturing to services and knowledge-based
activities has important implications for
the formation of knowledge cities. Firms increasingly
use technology as their prime source of competitive
advantage, and the economic wealth of
nations is increasingly tied to their technological
competence.
The increasing interconnectedness of the world
economy as part of the ongoing process of globalization
depends on technologies such as information
and communication technology. These are the
keys to corporate success and national growth.
Such technologies impose an almost irresistible
drive to be part of international growth. Similarly,
since the end of the 1980s, the development of the
knowledge-based economy, globalization, and
international competitive pressure has increased
the importance of innovation. Simultaneously, globalization
increases local differences arising from
local capabilities and environments.
New developments in globalization and communications
technology have prompted countries
and cities to focus their competitive strategies on
improving innovation. This shift has increased the
value of knowledge-based activity. Knowledgebased
production, however, generally clusters in
areas with a rich base of scientific knowledge tied
to specific industries. This spatial imperative has
polarized high-growth activity in a limited number
of areas of the world.
Proximity generates and transfers knowledge.
Thus, new knowledge-based activities cluster in
specific geographic localities. Proximity is essential
to stimulate company learning, create compatible
knowledge spillover effects, and establish positive
feedback among various local agents. Such clusters
are built around advanced technological infrastructure
and mature networks of innovation.
Knowledge clusters are not all equal but have
differing dynamics. Among the forms already identified
are the knowledge (or technology) park, the
knowledge village, the knowledge corridor, the
knowledge hub, the knowledge district, and,
beyond the knowledge city, the knowledge region.
Tacit knowledge embedded in a city is also critical.
The most successful cities are those able to
combine the structural or spillover effects of a
rich local knowledge base with international best
practice.
For example, the successful development of
Silicon Valley in the United States was based on a
knowledge network that encompassed both regional
learning institutions (i.e., the universities of northern
California) and for-profit industry research
teams. Innovations produced in the knowledge
network were adopted and developed economically
by proximate industries operating in an environment
of flexible development. Silicon Valley
has inspired knowledge-based urban development
around the world. Since the 1970s, the establishment
of technology parks and precincts in both
developed and developing countries has become
widespread.
Technology park, knowledge park, research
park, business park, industrial park, and innovation
park are descriptors that have been used interchangeably
to refer to knowledge clusters—the
high-growth technology industry. The term technology
park distinguishes the functional activity in
an area and refers to an area where agglomeration
of knowledge and technological activities has positive
externalities for individual firms located there.
Technology parks are generally established with
two primary objectives in mind. The first objective
is to be a seed bed and an enclave for knowledge
and technology and to play an incubator role nurturing
the development and growth of new small
high-technology firms, facilitating the transfer of
university know-how to tenant companies, encouraging
faculty-based spin-offs, and stimulating
innovative products and processes. The second
objective is to act as a catalyst for regional economic
development, which promotes economic
growth and contributes to the development of a
knowledge city.
While there are many different models of technology
parks, a technology park generally provides
both support and an environment of technology
transfer that nurtures the start-up, incubation, and
development of innovation-led, high-growth,
knowledge-based businesses. Although technology
parks strive to focus research and development