Opportunities for and Constraints on the Transformation Into a Knowledge-Based Economy

Abstract

As information and communication technologies (ICTs) change economic and social activities creating a new economic paradigm based on the production and processing of knowledge, all aspects of human life are being transformed, including cities people live in. All around the world, countries are trying to adopt this new paradigm referred to as a knowledge-based economy (KBE) and organize their cities to possess a more competitive position in this new context. Turkey is one of these countries wishing to build KBE. The chapter analyzes Turkish efforts in building KBE and organizing its cities in this respect. It emphasizes that Turkey once had an important advantage in building KBE due to its developed telecommunication industry that offered the material infrastructure of KBE but lost this technological capacity owing to the implementation of inappropriate strategies. Turkey also conceptualizes KBE in such a narrow sense that leads to the adoption of other wrong policies effecting the country's economy, society, and cities.