Making Competitive Cities (PDF)

The book investigates the impact on the competitiveness of cities
developing creative industries (arts, media, entertainment,
creative business services, architects, publishers, designers) and
knowledge-intensive industries (ICT, R&D, finance, law). It
provides significant new knowledge to the theoretical and practical
understanding of the conditions necessary to stimulate "creative
knowledge" cities.

The editors compare the socio-economic developments, experiences
and strategies in 13 urban regions across Europe: Amsterdam,
Barcelona, Birmingham, Budapest, Dublin, Helsinki, Leipzig, Milan,
Munich, Poznan, Riga, Sofia and Toulouse. These have different
histories and roles; include capital and non-capital cities of
different sizes; represent cities with different economic
structures; and different cultural, political and welfare state
traditions.

Through this wide set of examples, Making Competitive
Cities informs the debate about creative and
knowledge-intensive industries, economic development, and
competitiveness policies. It focuses on which metropolitan regions
have a better chance to develop as "creative knowledge regions" and
which do not, as well as investigating why this is so and what can
policy do to influence change.

Chapter authors from thirteen European institutions rigorously
evaluate, reformulate and empirically test assumptions about cities
and their potential for attracting creative and knowledge-intensive
industries. As well as a systematic empirical comparison of
developments related to these industries, the book examines the
pathways that cities have followed and surveys both the negative
and positive impacts of different prevailing conditions.

Special Features:

* Analyses link between knowledge-intensive sectors and urban
competitiveness

* Offers evidence from 13 European urban regions drawn from a
major research project

* Establishes a new benchmark for academic and policy debates in
a fast-moving field