Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Helsinki University of Technology, October 2002. Innovative Places: Networks and the Virtual Rob Shields, Professor Carleton University, Ottawa Canada

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Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Helsinki
University of Technology, October
2002.Innovative Places Networks and the
VirtualRob Shields, ProfessorCarleton
University, Ottawa Canada
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4 Explanations of innovative cities and regions

• 1. Growth Poles
• Traditional Agglomeration and Business Cycle
  theory (Schumpeter, Marshall)
• -innovations are concentrated in cities because
  they are more hospitable environments for the
  incubation and formation of new firms in part due
  to the agglomeration of potential inputs.
• -received wisdom until the 1970s
• gtwidely critiqued (also by Schumpeter himself)

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• 2. Innovative Milieux / New Industrial Districts
• Competitive Networks (Piore and Sabel 1984,
  Becatini 1990, GREMI)
• -suppliers, producers, education institutions
• -national chains link producers to consumers
• -smaller firms concentrate to build and share
  local supply chains and skilled labour pools
  (institutional analysis Scott 1990 Storper
  1995)
• -firms spin-off innovative units locally but
  address international markets
• -typical of regional innovation clusters (Po
  Valley etc.)
• gtdoesnt clarify causal linkages do innovative
  places create innovative firms or vice versa?

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• 3. Learning regions / Knowledge Economy
• Knowledge economy theories (Lundvall 1992)
• -Scandinavian (Denmark, Norway, Sweden)
• -some local innovation systems are better at
  acquiring and using new knowledge than others
  because they are adaptable and have a highly
  knowledgeable labour force.
• -Movement of labour between firms creates a
  system of learning and knowledge transfer
• gtwhat is knowledge?
• gtover-emphasizes the firm

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• 4. Clusters, Silicon Valley
• Competitive supply chain theory (Krugman 1991
  Porter 1990)
• -regional specializations and high quality local
  factors (supporting industries, firms, public
  sector) geared to demanding local and national
  clients/customers encounter international trading
  opportunities
• -virtuous circle of innovation and
  competitiveness
• gtover-emphasizes local quality of
  rivalry/collaboration and of best practice
  suppliers
• gttheory-lag clusters increasingly found to be
  locally-specific. Cant generalize

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• Recent evidence
• -Innovation is concentrated in core metropolitan
  centres
• -clustering is most typical of mature and primary
  industries, not high tech nor high productivity
  sectors.
• -innovation systems and their geographies vary
  from country to country
• -markets are international
• -customers are demanding
• -attract and retain specialized professional
  technical labour
• (Feldman 1994 Hilpert 1992 CEC DG XII 1999
  OECD 2001 Simmie et al 2002)

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• Innovation in Regional Metropolises
• -hold indigenous labour and attract labour via
  quality of life
• -language, regionalism
• -local specialists can understand and apply
  cutting edge
• ideas from elsewhere
• -local competitive advantages
• -distinctive technologies / training
• -key universities/research facilities
• -high-speed telecommunications / international
  airports
• -spatial and temporal proximity of key
  suppliers
• -access to national public sector demand and key
  large clients
• (Simmie et al 2002 ISRN 2001 2002)

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Sustaining Innovation
Role of public sector in promoting
sustainability -view of the whole -view of
everyday life as lived in place -importance of
strategic scale (regional?)

• Convergence
• Picking winners

• vs. Emergence
• Entrepreneurship

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Sustainable Innovation?

• Social reproduction in time and space
• Long term view of particular importance
• Soft Infrastructure (idealities)
• Culture and civil society
• Managing social spatialization
• Magnet effects
• ? Images
• Hard Infrastructure (actualities)
• Services, transportation networks
• ecological sustainability
• (Shields 2001 2002)

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Images of Innovative Places

• -Place is in many ways invisible and
  intangible.
• -One only sees how innovative places are
  actualized.
• -Only certain Innovation Affordances are taken
  up.
• -Other affordances remain virtual
• Virtual vs. concrete
• -Place is an entanglement of the virtual and
  concrete
• ? Everyday Life is a synthesis of these

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The virtual and the concrete
Matrix of the forms of the real and possible, the
ideal and actual
Real (existing) Possible
(representations) Ideal virtual abstrac
t Actual material probability ()
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Summary and Conclusions

• Reviewed 4 explanations of innovative places
• Recent evidence no single explanation gives the
  whole story

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Summary and Conclusions

• What roles can the public sector can play?
• Important vantage point
• Scale of space-time of planning framework
• Sustainable innovation
• Recognize that virtualities are real
• Manage their relation to the concrete
• Actualizing virtualities for collective long term
  benefits
• Images/affordances/culture ? Quality of local
  everyday life
• rshields_at_ccs.carleton.ca
• http//www.carleton.ca/innovation