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Cities and the knowledge-based economy Research theme and research questions The project is founded in Centre for Strategic Urban Research theme C Framework for regional development (www.byforskning.dk). The focus of this project is on economic and industrial development as a framework for urban futures. On one hand, that the global knowledge economy sets the opportunities and limitations for the local community, on the other hand, the cities are themselves significant platforms for economic development. The ambition of the project is provide theoretical new insights on cities and the knowledge-based economy and to provide new empirical evidence on the economic geography of Denmark that will make a solid foundation for discussions of strategic planning and urban politics. The main purpose of the project is therefore to answer the following research question: What is the future economic and industrial base of cities in an increasingly knowledge-based economy? In order to do so we focus on central economic aspects of the urban economy. The economic geography of cities and urban landscapes of Europe are changing. Today, the service and knowledge-based economy is a major driver of urban growth. The competitiveness of firms and hence their survival depends on their ability to innovate, improving their productivity (process innovation, including new forms of organisation), product quality or produce new products. The innovation process is an interactive and relational process that is highly complex and includes interaction between users and producers and between producers and regional institutional set-up such as the labour market and regional public and semi-public organisations. A critical aspect of the innovation process is knowledge and the understanding of knowledge creation as an interactive learning process. The growth of services industries is a highly complex growth involving many different kinds of services including the traditional service industries such as transport and social services and a range of new industries in business services and the cultural economy. Producer and business service have grown rapidly since the 1970s in the Denmark including research and development, legal activities, consultancy, advertising but also cleaning, photographers, designers, translation etc. The recent wave of outsourcing of key functions in firms have made a marked growth in knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) giving the sector a central position in the production networks facilitating and producing knowledge. Thus, the KIBS firms have come to play a vital role in the innovation process and production of knowledge because of the disintegration of the production process and the increasing use of outsourcing and outplacement and therefore also a significant role in the overall competitiveness of regions and metropolises. The competitiveness of firms in KIBS also depends on innovation. In an urban and regional context we know relatively little about the dynamics of KIBS in a Scandinavian context (Winther et al. 2005). Another central development in the urban economy has been on the nexus between culture and economy and the emergence of creative industries. The commercialization of culture represents some new directions in urban economies, changing the urban labour markets and the spatial competitive structures within and between cities. In addition, this commercialization is linked to the creative processes of innovation. Consequently, one of the features of modern capitalism is the way in which the goods and services that it produces are increasingly infused with aesthetic and semiotic content. Further, more and more elements of modern culture are being produced in the form of commodities by profit seeking organisations. The cultural economy and cultural industries cover a broad variety of industries that have the common identity of symbolic goods such as the film and video production. The cultural economy and creative industries are claimed to be vital for the future of the urban economy and has recently been seen as a political panacea. The project focuses on knowledge creation and locational dynamic of KIBS and on locational and political aspects of the cultural economy and creative industries. The focus on these two aspects of the urban and regional development is made in order to obtain knowledge about the new economy but also to obtain theoretically and empirically depth. KIBS and the urban economy:
The cultural economy and urban politics:
The analysis of KIBS and the cultural economy raises central theoretical questions that we have to engage in:
II. The coming of the service and knowledge-based economy in Denmark The urban landscapes of Denmark have seen major economic changes in the past decades (Andersen & Engelstoft 2004). On one hand there has been a concentration of economic growth as the large urban agglomerations especially Copenhagen but also Aarhus and Trekantområdet have gained jobs since the early 1990s, while particularly the periphery have experienced job loss and general economic gloom. On the other hand the large urban landscapes have expanded into the surrounding countryside making new economic geographies in the outer city and slowly changing the urban division of labour (Winther & Hansen 2005; Hansen & Winther 2005). The large urban landscapes have been dominated by de-industrialisation and restructuring of the remaining manufacturing industries towards research and development oriented industries. Moreover, the economy of the large urban landscapes is transforming towards a service economy (Winther 2004). The urban economy of large urban landscapes is composed of a range of different industries following different growth trajectories making the urban economy highly complex with firms competing at different scales. Some service firms serve local and national markets, others are political resolved while KIBS and the cultural economy for instance also serve and compete on a global market or are confronted with TNCs on national markets. This is evident in consultants such as civil engineering and advertising or the range of creative industries. The complexity is not only created as a result of different industries following diverse growth trajectories and competing at different scales. Capitalism is characterised by economic and relational integration between industries and sectors of the economy and an increasing vertical disintegration. The traditional borders of industries are crossed by production systems that are defined as the linkages between firms in which goods, services and information are exchanged to produce a commodity. The coming of the service economy and the booming of producer and business services are complementary. Outsourcing of service functions from manufacturing firms has created a variety of new jobs in the service sector. The production systems are globalising, an increasingly international division of labour can be observed and economic relations are creating transnational and global networks that may have significant local economic effects. The local production is hence more involved in the international division of labour through flows of goods, services, information and knowledge, whilst also flows of capital are of importance. Further, consumption has changed and has become increasingly global. This does not only include commodities but also services and their underlying functions. The urban economy is therefore increasingly dependent on decisions taken elsewhere, hence globalisation. III. A relational approach to the analysis of the economic geography of the service economy Until recently, watertight doors existed in geography and urban and regional studies between the geography of services and industrial (manufacturing) geography. Lately, this clear divide between the two sectors of the economy has started to fade. Current research on the economic geography of service industries has become more pluralistic as it has taken on some of the recent theoretical and methodological developments from the vast literature on for instance innovation and learning. ‘Industrial’ geographers have made several studies of service industries such as the culture industries and ICT. These recently developments aside, the footprints that were trod in the 1970s and 1980s have turned into well-worn tracks, and the divide is still visible in contemporary research in Denmark (and Scandinavia) – see appendix A for an elaboration. From the intense discussions of industrial decline, restructuring, transformation of capitalism and the rise of new industrial spaces in the eighties – see appendix A - the early nineties witnessed the emergence of another very important string of research. This new direction draws heavy on institutional and evolutionary economic theories and the vast innovation literature. Asheim and Mariussen (2003) have recently divided this immense literature in to three main perspectives. First of all, a perspective that emphasises institutions, formal and informal rules, norms and legislation as prerequisites for economic development, stressing especially knowledge production and innovation. The second perspective has a focus on geography pointing to the processes of localized learning, geographical proximity, clusters and agglomeration economies. This literature stresses the necessity of face-to-face contact and socio-cultural proximity as fundamental for innovation and knowledge transfer (especially of tacit knowledge) between the economic agents. The focal points of this research are on agglomerations, clusters, IDs and regional systems of innovations. The latter is the basis of the third perspective concerning the innovation system that underpins the innovation process (Lundvall, 1992; Edquist, 1997). Currently two positions dominate the debate in the geographical perspectives: a regionalist position versus a relational position (Peck and Yeung, 2003). The regionalist position attributes geographical proximity a vital role for the production of knowledge, and hence urban and regional competitiveness and growth. At present for instance Asheim (1996, 2002), Morgan (1997), Storper (1997), Cooke and Morgan (1998), Maskell and Malmberg (1999) and Gertler (2003) draw the main conclusions of the position, theorized for instance in the conceptualization of ‘learning regions’. A common theme is that the geographies of culture, institutions, norms and values are decisive for trust among economic actors (people and firms). The region is conceptualised as a space in which the institutional framework of learning processes and knowledge production is produced and reproduced. This is also evident in the analysis of geographical clusters that focuses on the identification of local or regional competences. The theoretical framework gives emphasis to growth industries, the costumer and supplier networks and the general institutional set-up that creates within cluster but external to firm advantages. In Scandinavia, these perspectives have been widely used by industrial geographers. The relational position emphasis relational propinquity and is associated with Amin’s (2002; 2003), Amin and Thrifts’ (2002) and Amin and Cohendet’s (2004) analysis of globalization, urban and regional development, urban change and production of knowledge. Location is understood as situated distanciated networks. For instance, relational or organizational propinquity is more important than geographical proximity in transfer of tacit knowledge (Amin and Thrift, 2002). Amin and Cohendet’s (2004) discussions of the production of knowledge in firms illustrate the relational position. They focus on the firm as the locus of knowledge production rather than the region. Doing so, they see different factors underpinning the knowledge producing processes. They do not exclude geography (the local or regional) as an important factor for the shaping of firm networks, but the space that the firms operate in cannot be reduced to a matter of geographical scale (regional or local). The firm’s network consists of the firm’s relations and hence the analytical focus should be on the space that is defined by the firm's relations: the spatial extension of the relations. Only recently, Barthelt et al. (2004) have promoted a theoretical sketch that discusses the local production of knowledge as on one hand a product of local buzz - including the importance of face-to-face contact (Storper and Venables, 2004) - or just being there by actors embedded in a geographical community, and on the other hand knowledge stemming from channels or pipelines of communication that are linked to places outside the community. We believe much can be learnt from understanding relational propinquity but it is vital to the understanding of industrial dynamics and location, that it is theorised how places underpin the relational and organisational spaces.
We need to theorise the firm and its position in the analysis of economic development. We take our departure point from the new promising perspectives within in the recent institutional and relational turn in economic and industrial geography (Martin, 2000; Boggs and Rantisi, 2003; Yeung 2005), that is the increased focus on the social relations of economic and industrial geography, an understanding of a dynamic and open-ended evolutionary economic system (Bathelt and Glückler, 2003), inspiration from economic sociology (Granovetter 1985, Swedberg 2003, Peck, 2004), evolutionary economics (Nelson & Winter 1982, Dosi et al. 1988, Hodgson 1993, Saviotti 1996, Andersen 1996) and of course the recent debate about the firm in regional and urban studies (Asheim & Taylor 2001, Yeung 2000, 2002, Grabher 2001, 2002 and others). We need to acknowledged regional social and cultural elements as explanatory factors analysing regional innovation, innovation potential and competitiveness. Concepts such as social capital, trust, norms and conventions are therefore central analytical categories explaining (uneven) regional development. Therefore we need to clarify:
If our understanding of urban economic dynamics is to improve, research on geography the geography of KIBS has to move beyond the watertight doors that have traditionally separated them. This can only be done by shifting the analytical perspective away from industries toward a relational approach focusing on products. Studies of industries have traditionally been delimited to a geographical area. However, production is seldom reduced to only a certain geographical setting. Therefore, to catch the numerous differences in the relations that constitute a product, investigations restricted to industries and geographical locations only account for small parts of a product's origins. Questions to be answered:
IV. The geography of the cultural economyA further and related development has been the rise of the cultural economy and the creative industries to the extent that the use of culture and creativity as a driver for urban economic growth is now an established feature of the policy and scientific research agendas. Several reasons for this can be identified. Encompassing activities as diverse as art, music, books, theatre, radio/TV, film, toys, printed media, architecture/design, sports, fashion, tourism, advertising, edutainment and content production, the cultural and creative industries constitute a leading growth sector that generates income and employment. Their tendency to cluster within rundown inner city districts often provides the catalyst for area revitalisation and regeneration (Scott, 2000; Hutton, 2004; Mommaas, 2004). Cultural amenities, entertainment and lifestyle are moreover seen as essential if a city is to use the ‘wow factor’ to attract educated, talented and professional people and the firms in which they work. To this end, researchers have noted the rise of the ‘Fantasy City’ (Hannigan, 1998), ‘Consumer City’ (Glaeser et al., 2001), as well as the city as an ‘Entertainment Machine’ (Clark and Lloyd, 2000). It is though Florida’s (2002a, 2002b, 2002c, 2004) suggestion that economic growth is dependent upon cities and regions attracting creative, young and talented people, not least through a vibrant city life, that seems to have especially captured the imagination of policymakers. The result is that culture is now advocated both as an economic sector embedded in diverse growth industries that can contribute to increased employment and area regeneration, and as a resource crucial to the re-imaging of cities and regions as places for tourists, investment and mobile skilled labour. “Cultural resources are the raw material of the city and its value base” (Landry, 2000, 7.) Culture-driven urban regeneration now has “a pivotal position in the new urban entrepreneurialism” (Miles and Paddison, 2005, 833). Whilst academic literature related to the cultural and creative industries in a Danish context is limited, it identifies significant avenues for future research. Skot-Hansen (1998a, 1998b, 1999) documents the changing strategies within Danish cultural policy, noting a tendency as early as the 1970s for municipalities to invest in the development of high cultural institutions and flagship cultural projects in the expectation that these would yield a benefit in areas such as tourism, jobs and trade. Whilst such culture-led economic development came to dominate local cultural policies during the 1980s, she argues that the late 1990s witnessed a rejection of growth-oriented policies in favour of community-based social objectives. This is particularly interesting given Power’s (2003) analysis of the national, regional and urban characteristics of cultural industries production systems in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. He notes that the cultural industries make an important contribution to employment in each country, are among the fastest growing group of industries in each country, and tend to cluster primarily within urban areas. Given their propensity to agglomerate combined with their impressive growth record, he suggests that they should be considered as important contemporary and future growth engines within Nordic countries and regions. In short, ‘an economic orientation to cultural policy is now needed: cultural industries as industrial strategy’ (Pratt, 1997, p.1914). Bayliss (2004), in an analysis of Danish urban local authorities’ cultural development strategies supports Skot-Hansen’s suggestion that such an economic orientation to cultural policy was absent as recently as 2000. Local authorities at this time placed most emphasis upon social development objectives such as democratisation of cultural activities, personal development and social cohesion in comparison to economic objectives such as employment and income generation and place marketing to tourists, skilled personnel and inward investors. This trend though has changed. In the case of Copenhagen for instance, Bayliss (forthcoming) argues that policy is now focused upon attempts to stimulate the cultural and creative industries and use culture and creativity to promote the city at an international level, attracting investment and the ‘creative class’. Copenhagen Development Council aims for the provision of cultural flagships and the physical redevelopment of the city as a place of leisure and entertainment so as to attract workers rich in ‘creative capital’ and thus also the companies in which they work. The Municipality of Copenhagen focuses similarly upon an international profile as a cultural, dynamic and tolerant metropolis so as to attract ‘creative people’. Furthermore, it aims to stimulate the creative industries through the development of clusters and incubators. Besides supporting the sector by means of increased financial support and improved advice networks, free zones exempt from the usual planning system are under consideration as part of a deregulation strategy to create the optimal framework conditions for creativity. In this context a critical issue to be researched is whether the adoption of creativity as an urban growth strategy can achieve its economic objectives, and in particular those of creating the optimal framework conditions for the cultural and creative industries. Hospers (2003, 160) notes that policymakers have rarely played a role in the development of creative cities, although he adds that the one thing they can do is “increase the chances that urban creativity will germinate.” In other words they need to plan for creativity, yet Larsen and Larsen (2005) suggest that this in itself is a paradox as creativity is rebellious, challenging order and tradition. The creative industries are anti-intervention, maverick, individualist, even Darwinian; they are rhizomic, thriving in social networks and spaces outside of the city’s formal infrastructures (Banks et al., 2000; Brown et al., 2000). Questions to be answered:
V. ProjectsThe section provides an overview of the projects to be finalised from 2006-2009. Project manager is Lars Winther GI. Project A is managed by Lars Winther GI, project B by Darrin Bayliss GI, project C by Hans Thor Andersen GI and project D by Tom Nielsen AAA. The projects relates to other projects in the centre. We have significant relations to the projects of Everyday Landscapes and Urban Policies and Strategies. Moreover, the research project is open for new projects including master thesis. Table 1 (p.17) provides and overview of the projects. Project A: The Geography of Knowledge Production, Urban Location Dynamics and the Economic Geography of Knowledge Intensive Business Services in Denmark. Project A1: The Geography of Knowledge Production in KIBS. The Case of Denmark Knowledge, and the ability to produce and use knowledge, is an essential requirement for economic growth in the knowledge-based economy. Knowledge in its different forms (tacit and codified) is produced by many different processes, but they have in common that knowledge is produced by interaction between actors. The importance of knowledge for competitiveness has created new forms of organisation in terms of the production of goods and services. Knowledge intensive business service firms contribute to the creation of knowledge as a part of production networks through the increased outsourcing of, for instance, R&D, sales, and industrial design. Service firms have become a vital part of the knowledge economy. What role does knowledge intensive business services have in the urban economy? How is knowledge produced in KIBS? How is the knowledge production organised in KIBS? What kind of proximity matters for the competitiveness of firms in KIBS? The project will contribute to a better understanding of the KIBS firms’ knowledge production, their geography of knowledge relations and the role of proximity. The first research question is: What is the role of geography in the creation of knowledge in the relational knowledge space of KIBS? The second research question is: What is the role of KIBS for the knowledge production in other industries? The project is divided into two interrelated parts. The first part is a quantitative analysis of KIBS in Denmark in the past twenty years using existing databases. The second part of the project is case study that set out to answer the research questions using qualitative research methods mapping the relational knowledge spaces of KIBS. Part I A quantitative analysis of KIBS The quantitative analysis can answer questions of how many, where and display patterns and distinguishing features of a population using for instance taxonomic groups. This part of the project will defined and discuss KIBS theoretically and empirically. What is KIBS? What is the current state-of-the-art of research on KIBS? How can it be quantitatively analysed using Statistics Denmark’s databases. The analysis of KIBS in Denmark using statistics from the IDA and RAS databases must include an analysis of:
The quantitative mapping and analysis of the geography of KIBS in Denmark make up the basis for the second part of the project. Part II Case study of specific KIBS industries This part of the project aims to answer why and how questions listed above based on an in depth case study of a specific industry. The project will include:
The aim of part II is to get a better of how the geography of industrial change is produced explaining how the processes of knowledge production in KIBS works and what produces the processes. Responsible: PhD student Staffing: PhD student, Darrin Bayliss and Lars Winther Timetable: 1.3.2006-28.2.2009. Literature review, statistical analysis of IDA and RAS statistics, final selection of case study, contact with respondents, fieldwork, writing-up Budget: PhD grant + data + LW Output: PhD thesis 2009, paper 2007: The geography of KIBS in Denmark, paper 2009: Relational Knowledge Spaces of KIBS Project A2: Imaginary Spaces of Location: How do KIBS Firms Produce and Represent Space. Pilot project Winther and Hansen (2005) examine the changing industrial dynamics and locational spaces of service firms within the framework of geographical proximity and relational propinquity in order to examine the social and cultural embeddedness of location. Imaginary spaces of location are the expressed locational preferences of firms. These imaginary spaces must not be understood as facts or exact preferences. They are social constructs of the interviewee (representing the firm) based on for instance personal beliefs, wishful thinking, political conviction, the discursive practices of interest groups or real thought-through locational preferences. Thus, the locational preferences can be related to a variety of discourses arising from multiple rationalities (Ettlinger, 2003), i.e. economic, social or cultural embedded rationalities. The locational preference of a firm (economic rationale) may for instance be related to values of residence (social or cultural rationale), as we shall see below. The imaginary spaces of location are all in all representations of the perception, experience and interpretation of locational preferences by the firm (or the interviewee representing the firm). For example, a category such as ‘prestige’ that has been used extensively in studies on locational preferences is not such an absolute category as it often appears. Different firms have different perceptions of prestige and hence ascribe different values to prestige. International law firms may find prestige in waterfront offices while IT HQs find greenfields prestigious. Winther and Hansen (2005) suggest that firms, that are located in different parts of Copenhagen, have different perceptions and interpretations of the context they are embedded in. Put differently, service firms produce different imaginary spaces of location even within the same context (the urban landscape of Copenhagen). This project would like to answer the question: how are these Imaginary Spaces of Location produced? How do firms produce their representation of space? The project will include:
Responsible: Lars Winther Staffing: Lars Winther and student Timetable: 2006-2008. Literature review, final selection of case studies, contact with respondents, fieldwork, writing-up. Budget: LW 4 months Output: Paper 2007: Imaginary spaces of location: the firm’s production and representation of Space, Paper 2008: Imaginary Spaces of Location: case studies from Copenhagen, conference 2008: Presentation of papers Relations to other projects: Birgitte Mazanti and the Everyday Landscapes Project A3: How has Urban and Regional Development been Analysed In Denmark? What is the current State-of-the-Art? This project will make a state-of-the-art review of how industrial location and regional and urban development has been scientifically studied, analysed and perceived in Denmark in the past fifty years. What research paradigms have dominated? What themes have been central to scientific studies? A preliminary science study of economic geography in Denmark. The project will be based on literature study and continue the work on the economic geography of services in Scandinavia documented in Winther et al. (2005). Responsible: Lars Winther Staffing: Lars Winther Timetable: 2006-2007: Literature review Budget: LW, student Output: Paper 2007: Economic Geography in Denmark: Theoretical perspectives and empirical results, conference 2007: Presentation of paper Project A4: Master Theses Projects A central aspect of the research projects will be to include master students in the project activities. Currently four master students are involved in writing theses that a highly relevant to the project.
Project B: The Geography of the Cultural Economy and Creative Industries Project B1: Cultural and Creative Clusters: Urban Development and Policies This project takes as its starting point an analysis of cultural and creative clusters in Denmark. The main objective of the research is to examine the factors that can help generate and sustain a local environment favourable for creativity and the creative/cultural industries. A central question to be addressed is to what extent it is possible to devise a physical, social and regulatory environment in which creativity will flourish. On this basis the project aims to produce a deeper understanding of the interplay between culture, creativity, planning and local and regional development. The research project involves an analysis of selected cultural/creative clusters, both planned and unplanned, that examines their spatial organization and range of industry types, together with the network types, forms of cooperation and synergy effects that they represent. Specifically, the research will seek to: · Analyse the clusters’ agglomeration economies (including firms’ linkages, interactions and exchanges) and institutional networks, i.e. relations with for instance schools, universities, NGOs, community organisations, etc. · Explore the significance of a ‘critical mass of human capital, amenity attributes and environmental conditions’ for the emergence of creativity and innovation: What is the role of social interaction? What is the importance of diversity? Is there a ‘geography of amenity’ that contributes to intensive social interactions? In short, how important are the social and physical environments, and what is the role of physical planning?
Methodology: The research is planned around several in-depth case studies of selected cultural/creative clusters in various stages of development. These will entail primarily qualitative interviews with a broad range of relevant actors including policymakers, firms, workers, planners and architects. Observation and document analysis will complement these interviews. When selecting case studies, it will be important to include a range of planned and unplanned clusters at various stages of development. Potential case studies include: · Den Hvide Kødby, Copenhagen · Refshaleøen, Copenhagen · Musicon Valley, Roskilde · Katrinebjerg IT city, Århus
New York is proposed as an international case study in light of, firstly, the city’s position at the forefront of the cultural/creative economy and, secondly, the expectation that an analysis of the city’s attempts to create the most favourable framework conditions for the creative sector will provide insight into cutting edge policy developments. This is seen as preferable to a European comparative case study where these developments will in all probability be absent due to the lag time in policy diffusion. Responsible: Darrin Bayliss. Staffing: Darrin Bayliss Timetable: 1.2.2006-31.1.2008. Literature review, final selection of case studies, contact with respondents, fieldwork, writing-up. Budget: DB + student + data + travel/accommodation. Output: Paper 2006: Creative industry strategy in Denmark. Paper 2007: Planning for creativity. Paper 2008: Optimal framework conditions for the creative industries. Conference 2008. Project B2: The Cluster of Architecture in Aarhus Since the mid-sixties Aarhus has emerged as a major location of several architectural firms that are successful winners of architectural competitions all over the world as well as responsible for the building of plenty of architecture nationally and internationally. The competitive cooperation among the firms, the flow of a large pool of architectural labour power between them and the presence of the Aarhus School of Architecture in the city seems to have been central factors in this development. The project will examine the emergence, consolidation and further development of the cluster in the period 1965-2008. The main focus will be on
Methodologically the project will be based on available historical, qualitative and qualitative date on the firms, the employment of architects in the Aarhus region and the Aarhus school of architecture and on qualitative interviews with representatives from the firms, form the Architectural Associations in Aarhus and form the School of Architecture as well as with individual architects that have been employed as architects for a long period in the Aarhus region. Responsible: Anders Toft (to be confirmed) Staffing: Anders Toft & Tine Nørgaard (to be confirmed) Timetable: 01.08.06 – 31.07.08 Budget: 12 months (6 RD-AAA; 6 AAA) Project B3: The Movie City in Aarhus Back in 1910-20 Aarhus was the Danish movie city. Almost 100 years later the municipality now makes an attempt, more or less from scratch, to establish once again Aarhus as a Movie City. The project will investigate the strategies followed in this attempt, its institutional and locational framework and the ability to attract actual movie productions. The research questions and methodology will be as in project B1.2. Responsible: NN Staffing: NN Project C Local development strategies This project aims at outlining the reformulation of urban development policies in small and medium sized towns in the periphery of the metropolitan region. While most cities had an independent local economic policy based on existing industries and transport links, several have now lost their manufacturing industries and have been forced to develop at new economic and employment platform. While the rhetoric of knowledge based industry/ creative economy/ high tech products long have dominated the debate, the smaller cities have few or no real chances to construct such an economic position for their industries. At the same time, understandings and discourses embedded in the social and traditional relations of the past do limit the outlook of day. The project intends to uncover the change in urban development strategies in relation to both material and immaterial conditions. The research will be based on interviews during autumn 2007/ spring 2008 and a final report is to be expected by the end of 2008. Responsible: Hans Thor Andersen Staffing: Hans Thor Andersen Timetable: 2007-2008 Project D: The City without Limits as a Condition for the Knowledge Economy. Mapping the Eastern Jutland region The knowledge-based economy is conditioning the development of the urban regions of “The City without Limits”, but the relationship is reciprocal: The existing material structures of the urban region also condition the knowledge-economy. The purpose of this project is to investigate, form an architectural-urbanistic point of view, what the material structures of the urban landscape look like when seen from the perspective of its reciprocal interaction with the knowledge-economy. The investigation will take the form of a case study of the Eastern Jutland Region around Aarhus, and will use the aesthetically oriented methods of mapping that are employed in Tom Nielsen’s project on “The City Without Limits – Atlas on a changing territory”, as well as it will build upon and develop the results from this project. Such a mapping is also intended to serve as a knowledge base for formulating new strategies for the knowledge-based urban region. Responsible: Tom Nielsen Staffing: Post.doc. Timetable: 01.10.07-31.06.08 Budget:
9 months (9 RD-AAA) |