EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - The role of community and lifestyle in making a knowledge city

The role of community and lifestyle in making a knowledge city

Introduction

‘The role of community and lifestyle in the making of a knowledge city’ gives an overview of the current knowledge on building creative communities. It draws some interesting parallels between the former mass industrial production and current mass knowledge production. It stands from other works on this issue, because knowledge workers are studied from a more anthropologic point of view. The researchers largely avoid the cliché of the ‘hyper-creative bohemian knowledge worker’ poised by Florida and others, giving back the workers in the knowledge industries their human face.

Description

This publication investigates the role community and lifestyle play in creating successful ‘knowledge cities'. It starts by broadly examining knowledge-based urban development from a number of different perspectives:

The first view is historical. Knowledge work and knowledge workers are seen as vital parts of a new emergent mode of production reliant on mass production of abstract knowledge.
The second perspective goes deeper into knowledge, acknowledging it is not a static object but an ever changing human activity.
The third perspective places the knowledge worker in a geographic setting: the city.
The fourth perspective is most interesting: here, the needs and desires of knowledge workers are identified and measured against the needs and desires of more ‘traditional’ workers and families. From a basic understanding of knowledge work as mental labour, the compensatory needs of knowledge workers are mapped. The question how the fulfilment of these needs should be incorporated in the urban fabric is systematically, but briefly, addressed.

The ‘role of community and lifestyle’ includes two case studies: Austin, Texas and Singapore’s one-north district. The former is one of the most successful knowledge cities in the world. It success can be traced back to successful cooperation between local authorities, business and academia, dating back to the early 1980s. The one-north district is not yet established as a knowledge city. For now it only largely exists in blueprints. The blueprint however, tries to incorporate the current body of knowledge on how to create a competitive, successful knowledge city.

Conclusions

Among the numerous policy recommendations and conclusions, the following are deemed very relevant:

When focusing on the process of developing a ‘knowledge city’ or a ‘knowledge precinct’ the private sector should be the main driver – influencing the characteristics and requirements based on their current and future business needs.
One of the characteristics of the knowledge worker is their high demand: knowledge workers want both quality and quantity in their life. As cited in the publication: “Creative human beings just have no knowledge of the concept of ‘enough’ ” (Baum, p. 65). In their preferred living environment, the knowledge worker has high, sometimes conflicting demands.
Because of this, the knowledge precinct space is a multi-dimensional construct of functional and stylistic necessities – a ‘total environment’.
In the knowledge precinct social preference is for discrete, networked activity in stead of massed functional agglomeration. The challenge for policy makers is to provide for quantity of activity while maintaining the quality of discretion.
Mass knowledge production takes place in larger organisational settings. Most knowledge workers are wage employees. It should be an important objective of policy makers to distribute housing in close proximity to work space.
In contrast to the more traditional worker, the knowledge worker spends a lot of his leisure time in the public realm, within its ‘community of strangers’. This puts higher demands on the local authorities to provide for an environment that is perceived as being safe.

Contact info

Griffith University – Urban Research Program
Mr Scott Baum (Associate Professor), tel. +61 7 3735 5430

Publication date

01/02/2007

Researcher

Scott Baum, et al.

Article info
ISBN: 9781 921291 012

Links

Visit the Urban Research Program website Visit the City of Austin, Texas website Visit the Singapore One-North website

Download ‘The role of community and lifestyle in the making of a knowledge city’ (PDF, Eng, 3.5 MB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Housing > Housing policy

Keywords

Housing need