Aspects on the city as a knowledge tool

Abstract

PurposeThe city can be viewed from many perspectives. In this article the author's perspective will be the city as knowledge tool. In the knowledge economy it might be argued that one of the most essential dimensions will be the relational as well as organizational dimensions, such as a city. The city is the larger context, or structural capital surrounding the human capital, for the value creation dynamics. This also implies that the city is a very complex issue but also highly dynamic knowledge context.Design/methodology/approachThe method is literature review, empirical project case observations and creative research.FindingsThe city might be seen in this context of a more or less good city regime to support the value creation from and for the knowledge workers. Then the distinction can be that a knowledge city is purposely designed for encouraging and nourishing the collective knowledge, i.e. intellectual capital, as capabilities to shape efficient and sustainable actions of welfare over time. The city can be seen as the structural capital surrounding the human capital but also the relational capital connecting the human capital with the structural capital to give a higher value adding for the knowledge worker.Practical implicationsThe city design is the critical organizational and relational capital of tomorrow for the knowledge worker. The city concept and design of its new urbanism, i.e. people migrating into cities, is becoming more and more of a strategic tool in the global competition of knowledge or talent war. To shape the efficient interface for the individual knowledge worker to leverage the global opportunity space with a local opportunity space. In the case of urban design for the knowledge economy this might take us to the need for designing a knowledge port for the knowledge flow as an exchange design for the intangible flows.Originality/valueThis paper views the larger structural capital surrounding the knowledge worker by both looking at some cases as well as stating a preliminary model of drivers for design of a knowledge city. These mentioned cases or forecasts might have strong impact on the urban design for attracting and nourishing citizens for the growth of social capital as network of friends into a new type of urbanism for minds. The knowledge city design is a unifying concept that will help to integrate perspectives of economics, urban studies and knowledge management. The design of a knowledge harbor concept is a multidisciplinary issue and is now being prototyped in reality.