Global clusters of innovation Entrepreneurial engines of economic growth around the world

Engel, J. S. (Ed.). (2014). Global clusters of innovation: Entrepreneurial engines of economic growth around the world. Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar. ISBN 978-1-78347-083-9.
Reviewed by: Gordon F. Mulligan, The University of Arizona, USA DOI: 10.1177/0891242415625166
Economic Development Quarterly, 2016, Vol. 30(2) 185–187.


During the 1980s, Michael Porter helped fashion a new paradigm for understanding industrial behavior. After noting that successful firms can differ in scope and conduct, he went on to summarize the winning strategies of national champions around the world (Porter, 1990). As a rule these successful firms nurtured better workers, innovated more aggressively, and developed stronger ties both to government and private capital. Porter also observed that many successful firms were located close to their competitors, suppliers, and related business associations, so he next developed deeper insights into industry clustering (Porter, 1998). In the conversation that followed, a consensus was reached that clustering is a strategy that enhances both the productivity and the innovation of firms, and stimulates the creation of entirely new business types and product lines. These thoughts about the competitive advantages of clustering arrived just as the public interest had turned to contentious issues such as globalization, free trade, and outsourcing. As a result, many governments asked whether business clusters might enhance the success of place-based policies (e.g., industrial targeting) or, even more optimistically, whether designated clusters might assist the state in developing a more dynamic economy.

Are America’s Inner Cities Competitive? Evidence From the 2000s

Are America’s Inner Cities Competitive? Evidence From the 2000s 
Daniel A. Hartley1, Nikhil Kaza, and T. William Lester
Economic Development Quarterly 2016, Vol. 30(2) 137– 158.

Abstract

In the years since Michael Porter’s research about the potential competitiveness of inner cities, there has been growing evidence of a residential resurgence in urban neighborhoods. Yet there is less evidence on the competitiveness of inner cities for employment. The authors document the trends in net employment growth and find that inner cities gained over 1.8 million jobs between 2002 and 2011 at a rate comparable with suburban areas. The authors also find a significant number of inner cities are competitive over this period—increasing their share of metropolitan employment in 144 out of 281 metropolitan statistical areas. Also described is the pattern of job growth within the inner city. The authors find that tracts that grew faster tended to be closer to downtown, with access to transit and adjacent to areas with higher population growth. However, tracts with higher poverty rates experienced less job growth, indicating that barriers still exist in the inner city.

Keywords: inner-city employment, competitiveness, economic development

The Radicals’ City: Urban Environment, Polarisation, Cohesion

Ralf Brand and Sara Fregonese The Radicals’ City: Urban Environment, Polarisation, Cohesion. Surrey: Ashgate, 2013.
Reviewed by: Scott Bollens, University of California, Irvine, USA.
Planning Theory 2015, Vol. 14(3)


Science and Technology Studies (STS), initiated in the 1960s, is a sociological study of science and examines how scientific advances are socially shaped. Integrating insights from the humanities and social sciences, it emphasizes the social processes through which scientific and technical knowledge is created, evaluated, and utilized. It considers as misleading those representations of reality that neatly split subject from object, technologies and humans, and the material from the social. Rather, these categories are seen by STS scholars as emergent and mutually constituting. In The Radicals’ City, co-authors Brand and Fregonese demonstrate the usefulness of STS for studying cities characterized by deep political and ideological fractures. They interrogate the premise that the built environment of cities not only reflects social phenomenon but also that the physical environment “has a degree of agency and should be understood as some kind of actor” (p. 128). While not adhering to material determinism, the authors instead suggest that “the materiality of the city is one of many factors that that co-shape our social reality” (p. 128). Using a STS lens, the city’s built environment is both a mirror and mediator of social processes. In cities hosting antagonistic communities, the built environment— including anything from street layouts, buildings, parks, walls and fences, benches, flags and other symbols, and surveillance infrastructure—reflects the tension and polarization of these cities, but also constantly influences the daily lives of its inhabitants (in terms of where they feel safe to shop, walk, recreate, commute) and can change perceptions, shaping and intensifying stereotypes about the ethnic “other” in the city.

Ideological traces in plans for compact cities: Is neoliberalism hegemonic?

Ideological traces in plans for compact cities: Is neoliberalism hegemonic?
Tore Sager Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway
Planning Theory 2015, Vol. 14(3) 268– 295.

Abstract

The aim is to study how ideologies come through in urban regeneration plans. Neo-liberalism, participatory democracy and environmentalism are systems of ideas competing for the minds of citizens in large parts of the world. Typical urban policies linked to each ideology are listed to provide a basis for identifying features of development plans that reflect aspirations for an entrepreneurial, green or open and inclusive society. A case study from Trondheim, Norway, maps ideological traces in waterfront development plans. The central question to be addressed is whether the internationally widespread allegations of neo-liberal hegemony over urban plans are reasonable. In light of the case data, it can be questioned whether neo-liberal ideology, although influential, is hegemonic in the plans. This doubt lingers, even if the chosen case Nedre Elvehavn is the kind of large-scale transformation of former dockyards close to the central business district that is often regarded as prototypical neo-liberal development in academic planning literature.

Keywords
case study, communicative planning theory, hegemony, ideology, neo-liberalism, planning theory, sustainable development, waterfront development

Dilemmas of planning: Intervention, regulation, and investment

Dilemmas of planning: Intervention, regulation, and investment
Federico Savini, Stan Majoor and Willem Salet
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Planning Theory 2015, Vol. 14(3) 296– 315

Abstract
Planning through processes of “co-creation” has become a priority for practitioners, urban activists, and scientific researchers. However, urban development still shows a close instrumentalism on goal-specific tasks, means, and outcomes despite awareness that planning should enlarge possibilities for social change rather than constrain them. The article explores the dilemmas of planning agency in light of the contemporary need to open spaces for innovative practices. Planning is understood as a paradox; a structural tension between organization and spontaneity. The article provides a detailed profile of three specific dilemmas stemming from this condition. We distinguish and conceptually explore the dilemmas of intervention, regulation, and investment in current practices. The article provides a specific understanding of today’s planning dilemmas, exploring the key notions of “space and time” in the intervention dilemma, “material and procedural norms” in the regulation dilemma, and “risk and income” in the investment dilemma. We suggest that planning practice today needs to make sense of these dilemmas, navigating through their extremes to find new contextualized forms of synthesis.

Keywords
dilemma, interventions, investments, regulations, urban development

Urban codes for self-organising cities

Complexity and the inherent limits of explanation and prediction: Urban codes for self-organising cities
Stefano Moroni, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Planning Theory 2015, Vol. 14(3) 248– 267

Abstract 
The purpose of this article is to explore what kind of (land-use) regulation is more compatible with a radical acceptance of the idea of the complexity of socio-spatial systems and of the intrinsic limits of explanation and prediction. The article applies insights from complexity sciences to planning practice, critically comparing different land-use regulatory instruments (in particular, patterning-instruments and framework-instruments). The main result and conclusion is that it is necessary to embrace the challenge of complexity and self-organisation, and consequently to start profound revision of regulatory instruments.

Keywords
complexity, explanation, prediction, regulation, self-organisation

Three theoretical perspectives on the public realm of Dutch cities

Will enclosed residential domains affect the public realm of Dutch cities? Three theoretical perspectives
David Hamers and Joost Tennekes PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, The Netherlands
Planning Theory 2015, Vol. 14(3) 227– 247

Abstract
In recent years, enclosed residential domains have emerged in Dutch housing developments. Commentators fear that enclosed residential domains will lead to a loss of the public realm. This article considers such claims. Based on a conceptual analysis, it is argued that the question of how enclosed residential domains imply a loss of public realm should be addressed by distinguishing between three theoretical perspectives: the social perspective, the market perspective, and the civic perspective. It is also argued that the specific morphological characteristics of Dutch enclosed residential domains should be taken into account. Because of the absence of closed gates, for instance, many of the Dutch enclosed residential domains differ from gated communities abroad.

Keywords
conceptual analysis, enclosed residential domains, gated communities, morphological analysis, The Netherlands, theories on the public realm