The Project
Why sustainable urban development?
Recent years have seen the emergence of two phenomena that indicate major shifts are underway in the organization of economies and societies. First, the development of a new economy comprised of high technology sectors, such as information and communication technologies and biotechnology, is transforming both production and consumption norms, as well as altering relations between business organizations, individuals and institutions. As with previous rounds of economic development this new economy is concentrated into specific locales such that a number of city-regions have become the locus of the new economy and of global economic growth. Second, we have also seen the rise of sustainable development as a discourse that offers a somewhat different view of future economic and social organization. Here, economic development should be combined with environmental and social development in a holistic manner. To date, research and policy work upon the new economy and sustainable development have largely developed in parallel with relatively little work that investigates whether the two approaches are antithetical or compatible.
Why the new economy?
The new economy is widely recognized as forming the main driver of global economic growth in the developed world. According to the Progressive Policy Institute, the new economy is a “knowledge and idea based economy where the keys to wealth and job creation are the export of ideas, innovation and technology that are embedded in all sectors of the economy.” While the new economy is comprised of groups of high tech industries, such as information and communication technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and so on, there is also a wider sense that a broader “new economy” is developing which encompasses changes in the way that business organizations operate and relate to other institutions, both internally and externally. New economy spaces mark a new “sphere of convergence” between economic activity and culture and sustainability.
Why sustainable development and the new economy?
Economy and culture have always been intrinsically interwoven, but as Allen Scott and others point out, new economies involve a much closer relationship between the firm and place, such that new forms of economic activity reflect a dialectic between local culture and capital. We are already familiar with notions of firm embeddedness in local places, which takes a variety of forms including internal organizational changes that involve breaking down departmental silos and altered business-to-business relationships, but the connectedness between firms and place, and between capital and culture are moving into new realms. Thus, new economy firms have different relationships with their host locations. In contrast to their Fordist predecessors, who were interested in public subsidies, tax breaks, inexpensive real estate, few regulations and low wages, new economy firms view location in terms of linkages to external economies, specialized business services, and destination spaces, rather than focusing solely on more tangible considerations such as operating costs and rents. New economy spaces thus have a synergistic relationship with their firms. We are particularly interested in two areas of synergy – quality of life and local governance/institutional arrangements – as these are key areas where new economy spaces may articulate with sustainability policy.
In the first instance quality of life attributes and environmental assets are deemed essential in the new economy to maintain competitiveness vis-à-vis other locations. In particular, attracting and retaining highly qualified and highly paid key workers is closely linked with quality of life issues, such as attractive landscapes and opportunities for leisure. Such elite workers are especially sensitive to local “quality of life” issues insofar as their particular training and skills often gives them greater spatial choice and mobility than their less well-paid, nevertheless co-located, counterparts. Indeed, the longevity of new economy spaces may ultimately be determined by the local dependence of elite workers rather than that of the firms for which they work. Quality of life is thus important both because it attracts new economy workers and firms to areas, as well as maintaining a creative milieu for new economy workers.
Our research agenda...
To date our work has focused on identifying the characteristics of sustainability in new economy spaces, especially in terms of the policies, the actors and organizational forms present in such spaces. Our investigation of these issues began by exploring local capacities for sustainable development and then moved on to consider the dynamic relationships among sustainability’s three areas of concern - environment, economy and society. Our work on the new economy and sustainable development currently involves on-going fieldwork in the Boston area. In the near future we will extend this research to other locations including: Austin, Texas, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and locations in Western Europe.