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The Urban Turn : And the Location of economic Activities

Kalsø Hansen, Høgni LU (2008) In Meddelanden från Lunds universitets geografiska institution. Avhandlingar
Abstract
Competitiveness of city regions has gained a more and more central position in regional development and regional planning within the last decades. A reason for this is that globalisation has caused pressure on industrial structures forcing firms to increase their competitiveness by more actively promoting innovation and knowledge creation. Access to knowledge has therefore become vital for most types of productions in the Western economies.



As creation of and access to knowledge have become increasingly important in order to stay competitive, a growing focus has been put on the geography of highly skilled labour. A growing string of this literature argues that large cities shall be understood as locomotives of regional... (More)
Competitiveness of city regions has gained a more and more central position in regional development and regional planning within the last decades. A reason for this is that globalisation has caused pressure on industrial structures forcing firms to increase their competitiveness by more actively promoting innovation and knowledge creation. Access to knowledge has therefore become vital for most types of productions in the Western economies.



As creation of and access to knowledge have become increasingly important in order to stay competitive, a growing focus has been put on the geography of highly skilled labour. A growing string of this literature argues that large cities shall be understood as locomotives of regional development and growth because they have an attractive effect on highly skilled labour. This line of thinking is called the urban turn in economic geography. This study examines the urban turn by studying the dynamics of location of economic activities in Nordic countries.



The thesis consists of 5 papers and a research report and offers both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the dynamics of location of economic activities in the knowledge economy. It approaches regional development both from an interregional perspective and an intraregional perspective. It provides a critical and thorough examination of the technology, talent and tolerance approach to regional development put forward by Richard Florida in his book The Rise of the Creative Class by examining the adequateness of the approach in a Swedish and Nordic context, and next it retheorises the approach based on empirical findings. Further, by studying intraregional dynamics in the greater metropolitan area of Copenhagen, the thesis addresses the geographical heterogeneity of the city region on the one side and the importance of social relations for location of economic activities on the other. Thereby the presented research calls for an intraregional perspective in mainstream regional development. (Less)
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author
supervisor
opponent
  • Associate Professor Lorenzen, Mark, Copenhagen Business School
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Urban Turn, Innovation, Business Climate, People Climate, Human Capital, Outer City, Creative Class, Talent, Regional Development, City Regions
in
Meddelanden från Lunds universitets geografiska institution. Avhandlingar
issue
176
pages
357 pages
publisher
Department of Social and Economic Geography, Lund University
defense location
Department of Social and Economic Geography, Sölvegatan 10, Flygeln
defense date
2008-02-01 10:15:00
external identifiers
  • scopus:38349085302
ISSN
0346-6787
ISBN
978-91-976521-3-1
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7620e70c-cb38-49b3-91cd-be59e7d2dabd (old id 819957)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 11:05:24
date last changed
2022-01-29 21:20:10
@phdthesis{7620e70c-cb38-49b3-91cd-be59e7d2dabd,
  abstract     = {{Competitiveness of city regions has gained a more and more central position in regional development and regional planning within the last decades. A reason for this is that globalisation has caused pressure on industrial structures forcing firms to increase their competitiveness by more actively promoting innovation and knowledge creation. Access to knowledge has therefore become vital for most types of productions in the Western economies. <br/><br>
<br/><br>
As creation of and access to knowledge have become increasingly important in order to stay competitive, a growing focus has been put on the geography of highly skilled labour. A growing string of this literature argues that large cities shall be understood as locomotives of regional development and growth because they have an attractive effect on highly skilled labour. This line of thinking is called the urban turn in economic geography. This study examines the urban turn by studying the dynamics of location of economic activities in Nordic countries. <br/><br>
<br/><br>
The thesis consists of 5 papers and a research report and offers both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the dynamics of location of economic activities in the knowledge economy. It approaches regional development both from an interregional perspective and an intraregional perspective. It provides a critical and thorough examination of the technology, talent and tolerance approach to regional development put forward by Richard Florida in his book The Rise of the Creative Class by examining the adequateness of the approach in a Swedish and Nordic context, and next it retheorises the approach based on empirical findings. Further, by studying intraregional dynamics in the greater metropolitan area of Copenhagen, the thesis addresses the geographical heterogeneity of the city region on the one side and the importance of social relations for location of economic activities on the other. Thereby the presented research calls for an intraregional perspective in mainstream regional development.}},
  author       = {{Kalsø Hansen, Høgni}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-976521-3-1}},
  issn         = {{0346-6787}},
  keywords     = {{Urban Turn; Innovation; Business Climate; People Climate; Human Capital; Outer City; Creative Class; Talent; Regional Development; City Regions}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{176}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Social and Economic Geography, Lund University}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  series       = {{Meddelanden från Lunds universitets geografiska institution. Avhandlingar}},
  title        = {{The Urban Turn : And the Location of economic Activities}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5692098/827319.pdf}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}