Urban Form and the Knowledge Economy
I presented a paper at the 2012 Association of American Geographers Annual Conference in New York, NY entitled ‘Knowledge Neighbourhoods: Urban Form and Evolutionary Economic Geography’. The paper is currently under review with Regional Studies. Below is the paper abstract and link to the presentation slides.
Abstract:
This paper examines connections between the urban form of neighbourhoods in relation to the evolutionary economic geography of knowledge intensive industries. The data presented in this paper shows that firms in ‘creative’ industries tend to be located in dense, mixed-use neighbourhoods near the city core while ‘science-based’ industries tend to be concentrated in low-density, single-use neighbourhoods in the suburbs. It is argued that these spatial patterns are related to the fact that inter-firm networks are more important in the ‘creative’ industries while ‘science-based’ industries rely more heavily on intra-firm interactions and learning.
You can download the slides here: AAG2012 Spencer
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