About the Book

This book adopts a holistic, integrated and pragmatic approach to exploring the myths, concepts, policies, key conditions and tools for enhancing creative knowledge cities, as well as expounding potentially negative impacts of knowledge based city policies.

The authors provide a critical reflection on the reality of city concepts including university-city alignment for campus planning, labour market conditions, social capital and proximity, triple helix based transformation, and learning by city governments. Original examples from both the EU and US are complemented by detailed case studies of cities including Rotterdam, Vienna and Munich. The book also examines the reality of knowledge cities in emerging economies such as Brazil and China, with a focus on institutional transferability. Key conditions addressed include soft infrastructure, knowledge spillovers among firms and the connectivity of cities via transport networks to allow the creation of new hubs of knowledge-based services.

Addressing new policy tools and developments in governance, this book will prove a fascinating read for academics, researchers and students with an interest in urban policy and planning, urban spatial economics, regional economics and urban sociology. In addition, practitioners within city and regional governments and agencies will find this book an invaluable reference tool.

Contributors: V. Araujo, A. Caragliu, Y. Chen, M. de Jong, H. de Jonge, J. de Vries, C. Del Bo, A. den Heijer, J. Edelenbos, K. Erdos, A.M. Fernandez-Maldonado, M. Fromhold-Eisebith, R. Garcia, D.-S. Lee, S. Luthi, P. Nijkamp, B. O hUallachain, R. Rocco, A. Romein, V. Scholten, D.P. Soetanto, M. Taheri, A. Thierstein, J.J. Trip, M. Trippl, M. van der Land, M. van Geenhuizen, A. Varga

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface 1. Creative Cities in a Knowledge Society: Introduction Marina van Geenhuizen and Peter Nijkamp PART I: CRITICAL VIEWS ON POLICIES AND POLICY TOOLS 2. Theory and Practice of the Creative City Thesis: Experiences from Amsterdam and Rotterdam Arie Romein and Jan Jacob Trip 3. The Sustainability of Knowledge-related Policies in Technology-based Cities in the Netherlands Ana María Fernández-Maldonado and Arie Romein 4. Two Critical Notes on the Meaning of the New Middle Class for Creative Knowledge City Policies Marco van der Land 5. Developing Knowledge Cities: Towards Aligning Urban and Campus Strategies Alexandra den Heijer, Jackie de Vries and Hans de Jonge 6. Science Parks: Changing Roles and Changing Approaches in their Evaluation Marina van Geenhuizen, Danny P. Soetanto and Victor Scholten 7. The Academic Entrepreneur: Myth or Reality for Increased Regional growth in Europe? Katalin Erdős and Attila Varga 8. From Exit to Excellence: Turning Old Industry Regions into Knowledge Regions through Triple Helix Processes Martina Fromhold-Eisebith PART II: KEY CONDITIONS: HUMAN CAPITAL, NETWORKS AND ‘SOFT’ FACTORS 9. A Map of Human Capital in European Cities Andrea Caragliu, Chiara Del Bo and Peter Nijkamp 10. Social Capital’s and Absorptive Capacities’ Impact on New Ventures’ Growth Danny P. Soetano, Mozhdeh Taheri and Marina van Geenhuizen 11. Innovation Networks in a Cross-border Context: The Case of Vienna Michaela Trippl 12. Spatial Network-based and Regional Proximity in US Biotechnology Der-Shiuan Lee and Breandán Ó hUallacháin 13. Interlocking Firm Networks in the German Knowledge Economy: The Case of the Emerging Mega-city Region of Munich Alain Thierstein and Stefan Lüthi 14. Knowledge Exchange in Trans-national City Networks: Evolutionary Mechanisms in Cross-local Learning Among European Cities Martin de Jong and Jurian Edelenbos PART III: CREATIVE KNOWLEDGE CITIES IN EMERGING ECONOMIES 15. Location Patterns of Advanced Producer Services Firms: The Case of São Paulo Roberto Rocco 16. Knowledge Spillovers through Informal Contacts in Urban Production Systems: The Case of ICT Firms in Campinas, Brazil Renato Garcia and Veneziano Araujo 17. Making Shanghai a Creative City: Exploring the Creative Cluster Strategy from a Chinese Perspective Yawei Chen Index