1. An approach to the concept of the city of knowledge
To explain the term "city of knowledge", the concept of industrial district will be addressed. In the Economic literature there are two universally accepted terminologies. Local productive systems and industrial districts. In relation to both terms, it has been specified that the first of these is a broader concept, because the industrial district would be part of a local productive system.
The concept of local productive system deals with a set of productive activities to which a country, region or city is permanently dedicated, and it is an older concept, which has been the object of study of the different economic schools from the mercantilists to today and has a general meaning that covers a continent or countries. On the other hand, the concept of Industrial District1 is more particular and is aimed at analyzing forms of production in localities, cities or regions. This concept, which is now 100 years old, was coined by Alfred Marshall on the occasion of the productive specializations that some English cities reached at the time of the industrial revolution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Currently, various words are used that could be located within the concept of local productive systems and that in some cases, although they have similarities, each of these will be clarified, such as: the City of Knowledge, Industrial District, Technological District, Cities of Excellence, Technological Cities, Technopolis, Technology Park, Industrial Park and Cluster.
1.1 Industrial district
With the advent of the 21st century and the technology of steam engines, the industrial revolution became especially relevant in England. Alfred Marshall, an English mathematician and economist, professor attached to the chair of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge, analyzed examples of industrial concentrations in some British cities and, based on these experiences, coined the term Industrial District.
What Marshall observed, especially in the cities of Lancashire and Sheffield, was the following: these were cities that based their productive vocation on a specific sector, for example, textiles. Marshall understood that these cities concentrated numerous small companies, with similar specializations and with complementary activities or branches of production that were linked directly or indirectly to the same sector. two
Additionally, these productive conglomerates had common characteristics: a) They produced for a market outside the area: in some cases for other cities within the same country, and in others, for the international market. b) The criterion of deepening the market was considered important, which was represented by a variety of products in small series or batches. The production methods used by these districts deviated from the mass production models of the large Fordist companies, nevertheless they obtained excellent results from the productive point of view. c) There was also a competition in these cities but with a high sense of collaboration, in other words,There were pacts or agreements where the objective was to obtain markets, but in certain cases labor, machinery, raw materials and productive capacity were provided between companies.
In addition, the concept of subcontracting was ingrained to be able to fulfill customer orders or requests.
In these industrial districts, Marshall also observed that there was a kind of networks or a set of institutions linked to each other, dedicated to promoting the activity of the district. a) Public institutions such as city councils and local governments were dedicated to fulfilling a promotional role in these business activities. b) Likewise, there was a close relationship between the academy and the companies. Technical education institutes specialized in training the skills and abilities demanded by the productive units. c) there were also producer associations that looked after the preservation of common interests. e) Consular organizations that facilitated the establishment of contacts with the outside world also formed part of this institutional network.
1.2 Similarities between the concepts of technology district, cities of knowledge, technopolis and cities of excellence.
For students of the subject as in the case of Jesús María Zaratiegui, the French Denisse Raquier Desjardins and the Mexican Paloma Salas: the three terms mean the same thing and the discoverer of the concept according to them was Marshall.
1.2.1 The concept of technology district is borrowed from the original concept of the Marshall Industrial District.
It arises in Italy in the late 1970s, one of its forebears was Becattini, who adopted the term Marshall and transferred it to the theory of the company to describe phenomena that were occurring in Italy, specifically in the region of Umbria and specifically in some cities such as: Perugia and Orvieto which are located in the center of the country and due to their degree of development they differ from the degree of development of the cities Lombardy to the north, the most productive region, and the populations of the southern region that has lower productivity. Based on this marked regional difference, the term third Italy was coined to differentiate it from the other two.
The Neomarshallian Italians were initially concerned with describing the concept of the technology district by taking up Marshall and the importance of technological externalities such as: labor, process specialization and diffusion of innovation. In relation to these issues, the Italians Becattini in 1979, Cappechi in 1987 and later Rullani in 1996 entered the field from the eighties. Today the Italians returned to the concept of industrial district proposed by Marshall and there is a club composed for 27 industrial districts.
The issue of externalities is a coincidence in both Marshall and Italians. Both observed that geographical proximity constitutes a favorable condition for the diffusion of technological externalities, especially when it comes to companies in the same activity or productive sector, which contributes to increasing productive returns.
Additionally, the contribution of the Italians is aimed at highlighting the importance of the culture of values that is generated among businessmen and the ties of cooperation that are forged with the institutions of these geographical locations. It could be said that the Marshall criterion of the Industrial District focuses more on the productive and business while the theme of the Technological District, in addition to the productive and business emphasizes the values, ties of cooperation and institutional integration as a condition to develop a true technology district. 3
Unlike Marshall, Italians emphasize a culture of value formation where society collectively acquires behavior that always aims at the same goal to generate a product where anyone in this district can achieve any task or direct action or Indirect in favor of obtaining the final result of the production process that would be obtaining the products or services is considered welcome.
The other change of attitude in the districts is the trust between the different actors. This good faith strengthens the understanding of market transparency and therefore reduces costs. This collective agreement behavior does not require lawyers, agreements or solemn signatures in notaries, which translates into lower costs.
Another of the objectives of the technological districts is aimed at creating a climate conducive to innovation based on knowledge activities whose purpose is to improve production processes and optimize the use of resources.
1.2.2 Cities of knowledge and cities of excellence:
They are terminologies used in the United States to refer to some cities that have oriented their productive apparatus to products and services that require high added value and, of course, knowledge. These cities have become an example for others because they have become centers of global competitiveness and have helped confirm the hypothesis that cities and regions through networks are more competitive today than countries.
1.2.3 The term technopolis, although it means the same thing, is more used by Germans and French to refer to cities that in their countries they consider to be of excellence and whose development is based on knowledge.
2. The concept of technology park
It is a different concept to that of cities of excellence or knowledge because they are special areas and constructions that are within a city that may or may not be of excellence.
The concept of technology park dates back to the fifties, it arose at Stanford University (California), creating there, the first park in the world, which shows that the idea of this type of project arises in the United States. They subsequently emerged in Europe in the 1980s. 4
A technology park is an industrial settlement where the installation of advanced technology companies and innovative activities are planned, integrating these companies with universities and science and technology centers. In this sense, a technology park constitutes one of the greatest efforts that a region makes to promote and evolve Research structures and developed and through its business fabric with an opening of the economy towards the international environment and the attraction of investments.
A technology park demands high urban quality with extensive and modern services such as: broadband cabling, technological learning, business incubators, connection to research centers and other complementary services such as: auditoriums, restaurants, parking lots, bookstores and stationeries.
The concept of a technology park is very different from that of a technology district and it could rather be said that within a technology district it is pertinent to its objectives that the existence of technology parks be encouraged and promoted.
3. The concept of an industrial park
It is an architectural complex where premises are built to house companies in the sector or manufacturing and meet favorable conditions of extension, infrastructure, commodity loading and unloading facilities, surveillance, roads, public services that are attractive places for this type Of productions, most of these parks are located on the edge of canals, seas, rivers, or large highways.
It differs from the concept of technology park in the sense that industrial parks do not necessarily have links with research centers and universities. Many cities in the world have industrial parks, but in very few there are technology parks and even fewer cities of knowledge.
4. Cluster
The term cluster in Anglo-Saxon means something like a cluster and in the technical texts of administration or information systems it refers to a conglomerate. Clusters are: groups of economic agents or geographically close companies that direct their activity towards the same sector or business, or towards derived or related activities. This set of companies engage in similar activities amid a dense network that includes producers, input manufacturers, distribution channels, end-sector companies, and service providers. For the successful achievement of this process, they develop cooperative relationships and complementary activities with each other. 5
- When it is said that they act directly, it refers more to a productive process (sometimes chained) whose result is a product or service. When we refer to the indirect form, reference is made to another production process or services that support direct processes.
It is important to understand that the concept of cluster involves the sense of collaboration, this means that the strongest links in the chain support and support the weakest. This means that the weak points are reinforced by the group of productive chains that have positive feedbacks. This sense of collaboration is clearly practiced in other countries, for example: In Italy in the wool and ceramic clusters in the Emilia-Romagna region, in the United States in the state of California in the wine and tourism clusters. In Germany in the Baden Wurttemberg region in automotive production.
As previously stated, the sense of support, collaboration, common objectives and competitiveness is essential for this set of economic agents to acquire the cluster dimension. In the literature on the subject of competitiveness, some authors warn that a cluster is not a sector, or a union, or an industry, or a production chain. It requires something more, it is a group of companies or support and related industries that are organized around common objectives and in order to mutually reinforce their competitive advantage.
In a Cluster, the competitiveness variable is oriented to the following: It allows the identification of cooperation strategies in conjunction with areas of competition to maintain a competitive environment that serves the needs of clients because they are considered the soul of competitive advantage. By specializing exchange: it increases the productivity of the economy, strengthens the export portfolio, making it less vulnerable to lower prices. Additionally, by specializing in exchange, it stimulates learning, innovation, reactivates the creation of active intellectual capital and increases the productivity of the economy.
In a city of excellence, it is normal for the production of the different economic agents to operate as a cluster. But it is also possible that in a city that is not of excellence there is some economic sector that operates as a cluster, but nevertheless coexists with other sectors whose activity does not operate as a cluster.
The emergence of clusters can happen spontaneously due to competitive advantages, geographic location or simply because specialized institutions are responsible for promoting or guiding them. In Colombia, through the Regional Foreign Trade Advisory Committees (Carces), potential clusters have been identified in the departments of: Amazonas, Antioquia, Boyacá, Cauca, Cesar, Córdoba, Choco, Cundinamarca, Huila, Meta, Norte de Santander and Cauca's Valley. 6
5. The city of knowledge
5.1 The importance of knowledge in society
With the advent of the 21st century the era of knowledge began, one of the major concerns of international agencies such as UNESCO and the World Bank is to study the complex relationship between knowledge, innovation and development. Additionally, it is about exploring how these relationships affect national and regional development. In this regard, the “World Development Report 1999” published by the World Bank is very significant, precisely examining the role of knowledge in development. 7
5.2 The government, business and academy triad
A city of knowledge is a geographical territory where there is a society that is properly articulated among itself and its actors have a common purpose: to participate in the development of a knowledge-based economy.
A knowledge-based economy is oriented to interpret through continuous learning the transformations that operate in the national and international order, in the areas: Political, economic, technical, scientific and cultural to build clear guidelines that aim to generate wealth so that society has employment and prosperity and quality of life.
In summary, the knowledge-based economy is achieved with the unit of three basic variables:
- Comprehensive human capital Strategies Favorable conditions
In turn, this unit is achieved with the following strategies:
- Identification and orientation of human talent Support chains A connectivity agenda Consolidate networks for innovation A network of business incubators A network of capital, but this is achieved with a clear articulation of the government, academia and business sectors.
A city of knowledge is supported by a fundamental triad: Government, academia and business. The government is a fundamental actor to the extent that it must commit to fulfilling its role as promoter and facilitator, creating conditions that enable the expansion of private initiative. The private sector made up of companies whose objective is to generate goods and services useful to society that allow it to satisfy needs.
Likewise, the academy has a two-way function, it is the receiver and transmitter of knowledge. Perhaps its most important function is to carry out a social assignment with the aim of training for life and transforming reality. In this sense, the Academy receives direct messages from the Government sector and the private sector about the type of education required to train individuals in skills and abilities that are necessary for them to respond to society and the requirements of the productive apparatus of goods and services.
5.3 Inventory of knowledge cities
Below is an inventory of knowledge cities that have been identified in the international consortium and the productions to which they have been dedicating.
|
CITY |
PRODUCT / SERVICE |
ACADEMIC LINKS |
| AUSTIN, Texas United States | Hardware and software | University of Texas |
| BANGALORE India | Hardware and software | Research Institute of India |
| BOISE, Idaho United States | Hardware and software | Boise State University |
| BOSTON Massachu-setts. USA | Hardware and software | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (IMT) |
| CAMBRIDGE, England. | Hardware and software | Strategic plan 2020, and Cambridge University |
| CASTELLÓN DEL PLAN, Spain | Citrus | University of Valencia |
| URBAN CHAMPAIGNE. France | software | National Center for Computational Applications |
| EVORA, Portugal | Ceramics | |
| EMILIA ROMAGNIA Italy | Wool, ceramics and agricultural machinery | |
| DUBLIN, Ireland | Pharmacy and Telecommunications | Ireland Development Corporation |
| FARO, Portugal | Cork | |
| HASTEFFEN, Germany | Automobiles | |
| NEW HAMBURG, Brazil | Footwear | |
| SAILKOT, Pakistan | Surgical instruments | |
| SALT LAKE CITY, United States | software | University of Utah |
| SEATTLE, WASH, United States | software | |
| SOFHIA-ANTIPOLIS, France | software | |
| TAIWAN, Taiwan | Microelectronics | Hsinchú industrial park |
| TEL AVIV, Israel | software | Army Manran University |
| UMBRÍA, Italy | Ceramics | |
| VALLE DEL SILICOM, California, United States | Hardware | |
| WASHINGTON, United States | Telecommunication |
- In column No. 1, the cities are shown, in column 2 the productive activity to which they are dedicated, in column 3 the entities, whether universities or research centers with which the knowledge cities work in association.
In addition to the cities described in the table, there are 30 other cities that are classified as technological or knowledge cities, but some are simply mentioned so as not to saturate the information, such as: Campina Grande, Sao Carlos, Florianópolis, Sao Leopoldo in Brazil. Oakland in California, Omaha in Nebraska, Tulsa in Oklahoma, Huntsville in Alabama, Akron in Ohio, the former in the United States. Barcelona in Spain. Suzhou in China. Cote de Azur in France. Leon and Guadalajara in Mexico. With these cities the inventory would reach 35 and some European, Chinese and Australian cities would be missing to mention.
5.4 Strategies used by technology districts or technology cities
Below are some of the strategies used by cities to become advanced technology centers, such as:
- Concerted and planned long-term vision. Export-oriented industrial policy. Technological development based on directed technology transfer. Copying technology. Buying technology. Once technology is adapted, it is struggling to improve it and reduce costs. Competitiveness depends on productivity. and this depends on technological capacity Educational emphasis to learn a culture of competitiveness and productivity. The difference in wages between the minimum and the maximum must not exceed seven times. 5The productive sectors must operate as a cluster. Development agencies are required to support and perform the function of promoting the image of the city in the international environment and, in addition, they must promote exemption from taxes and contributions in money to companies that generate employment.There must be a high ethical content and business cooperation in the development of different activities so that transactions and businesses flow harmoniously, thus avoiding paperwork.
6. The city of knowledge from the point of view of science and technology.
A regional strategy of the Science and Technology Center for Antioquia. 9
In Medellín the Antioquia Science and Technology Center has been promoting a program of regional interest. To meet this objective, it has been proposed to structure three processes. 1) The regional innovation system. 2) The education system for creativity and competitiveness. 3) The system for the systematic, collective and permanent application of scientific and collective knowledge for production. In turn, these systems would be crossed by transversal axes: a) An information and communication technology system or (ICT). b) An infrastructure system that supports and supports the fluidity of the systems and subsystems.
The first system will include agribusiness and biotechnology developments. The second would include efforts aimed at improving the quality of education and training world citizens with a better understanding of external and internal spheres, for which the efforts of the program aimed at teaching a second language would fit here. The third system would include identification strategies for key and competitive productive sectors accompanied by production strategies under the cluster figure.
In the case of transversal axes, the first of these or the ICT system would include the developments that are generated in the networks dedicated to science and technology through: Universities, Technological Development Centers, Business Incubators, Productivity Centers and competitiveness, innovation centers, the quality corporation and others.
In the other transversal axis, the necessary infrastructure for the processes to flow would be included as a good support in: Telecommunications, information highways, computer network, transportation, and development of urban equipment in general.10
7. Recommendations and conclusions
Medellín is not a city of knowledge but it has favorable conditions so that through key guidelines in the medium and long term, on the topics of: urban development, infrastructure, regional development, education, science and technology, income distribution, peace, coexistence and reconstruction of the social fabric; can become a city of knowledge. To achieve this you will have to promote the following strategies:
7.1 Strengthen the ties of the triad state, company, and university so that it operates with common objectives and in a consensual manner with the different actors of the city and the region, through pacts and agreements that allow obtaining concrete results.
7.2 Identify in the short term some key sectors where the city and the region have strengths to concentrate efforts and direct productive activities towards them.
7.3 Once the key sectors have been identified, they should operate as a cluster, so that the weak links in the production chain survive and the products become competitive.
7.4 Form local development agencies that are dedicated to selling the image of the city to the rest of the world and become sales engines for competitive productions and the strengths that the region possesses. These agencies must generate concerted incentive policies with local governments to promote tax exemptions, and incentives for entrepreneurs who are willing to create new companies in the competitive sectors proposed in section 7.2.
7.5 Great efforts will need to be made to target education to key sectors. Additionally, investments must be made in research aimed at these sectors and, of course, improve technical and professional training so that their graduates have a more universal sense and their acquired knowledge allows them to behave as citizens of the world and to exercise a successful role in the development of the competitive sectors that are proposed.
Bibliography
1 Marshall, Alfred. 1842-1924 He is the founder of the Cambridge school and a forerunner of the theory of well-being. It belongs to the neoclassical school.
2 C3ed University of Versailles. Globalization and evolution of rural Agroindustry in the Andean countries.
3 Idem: Denise Requier-Desjardins. Page 5
4 See: Asturias Technology Park.
5 Zaratiegui, Jesús María: A review of the Marshallian concept of the Industrial district. University of Navarra.
6 Week Magazine. The regional network. The government is betting on creating a cluster. June 2001. Bogotá. Colombia.
7 Claudia P Salas, Ismael Aguilar and Gabriel Susunaga. The role of innovation in regional economic development: Some lessons and experiences from the international context. Faculty of Economics of the Monterrey University. Mexico.
8 In Japan, the wage gap between low-ranking employees and managers does not exceed seven times. In Colombia there are differences of up to 50 times or more.
9 Based on information provided by Dr. Rafael Aubad L, Director of the Antioquia Science and Technology Center.
10 Note: The collaboration of Dr. Rafel Aubad, director of the Antioquia Science and Technology Center, who collaborated with the vision of a city of knowledge from the point of view of science and technology, is appreciated.
