The Competitive City-State in the Global Economy:

The Evolving Role of the University

City-State

• City•state — n. — A region consisting of one or more historic central cities surrounded by cities and towns which have a shared identification, function as a single zone for trade, commerce and communication, and are characterized by social, economic and environmental interdependence.

• “Across America and across the globe, citistates are emerging as the critical focus of economic activity, of governance, of social organization—now and for the century to come”

– Citistates, by Neal R. Pierce, Curtis W. Johnson & John Stuart Hall

In Demand: Massive Shift to Urban Areas

• The world’s urban population is now growing by 60 million persons per year, about three times the increase in the rural population.

• The world’s urban population could double from 2.6 billion in 1995 to 5.2 billion in 2025.

World Urbanization Trends 1950-2030

The urban share of the world’s population has grown from 30% in 1950 to an estimated 47% in 2000

Megacities

Growing regional competitionis based on

Growing urban competition

• Roughly 36 cities around the world will have over 8 million inhabitants by 2015, and most of them will be in developing countries

• Urban-led growth on national and international scales

City-States: The Key Economic Unit

• Key economic unit throughout much of human history

• City-States are organic and they evolve:– A labor market– A commute-shed– A broadcast area– A communication hub– An economic unit

Megacities - MegaClusters

Clusters of innovation – geographically close groups of interconnected companies and associated institutions in a particular field, linked by common technologies and skills.

- Innovation - Productivity Growth- Networks - Spillovers- Co-location - Geographic concentration

– Clusters of Innovation, by Michael E. Porter

Economic Drivers

• Knowledge production

• Creativity

• Innovation

• Science and Technology

Capital in the Evolving City-State

• Creative Capital

• Knowledge Capital

• Human Capital

• Social Capital

• Financial Capital

• Natural Capital

Winner-Take-All Competition:Global City-States

Global trade

+ Global capital flows

+ Global talent flows

= Global competition

Universities Provide for the Core of the City-State

• University discoveries underpin many of the major knowledge-based industries over the past two centuries

• Universities anchor clusters of innovation• Generate creative capital• Generate knowledge capital• Train human capital• Build social capital• Attract financial capital• Preserve natural capital

Universities Drive Innovation

• Spur the creation, or ‘spin-off’ of new firms based on the R&D activities at the university

• Enable ‘social networks’ that encourage technical graduates to stay in the region, and that generate increasingly more high-tech entrepreneurial activity within the region

The Evolving University

• The University Must Embrace its Cultural, Socioeconomic, and Physical Setting

• The University Must Become a Force, and Not Only a Place

• The University as Entrepreneur

• Pasteur’s Principle

• Intellectual Fusion

• Social Embeddedness

• Global Engagement

City-States: Global Competition and the Role of the University

Universities Provide Leadership for the City-State:

» Conceptual

» Human Capital

City-States: Global Competition and the Role of the University

Major actors in the global city-state network:

• Local networks • Global networks • Competition – Cooperation

City-States: Global Competition and the Role of the University

Universities must ask the tough questions and provide tomorrow’s answers:

What will the City-State of the future look like?