Title: City infrastructure supporting innovation

Authors: Kirsten Martinus

Addresses: Curtin University, Kent St., Bentley, Australia

Abstract: This paper considers the capacity of urban network and community-based planning to generate global knowledge flows and human-scale environments. It presents a study investigating the presence, relative density and distribution of innovation-supporting infrastructure surrounding major train stations in five cities. Four are highly-innovative, mid-size cities: Boston, Portland, Stuttgart and Dusseldorf. The fifth is Joondalup, a city in Western Australia which has similarly targeting knowledge development and innovation but has not received the same global recognition. This paper contributes to discussions of how local-global linkages and social capital building capacity of local urban planning can support innovation and knowledge development. It suggests that an analysis of localised spatial infrastructure and amenities of innovation indicate a region's propensity to fulfil new economy priorities.

Keywords: knowledge development; urban planning; innovation support; social capital; transport infrastructure; city infrastructures; urban networks; community-based planning; global knowledge flows; train stations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKBD.2012.047033

International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 2012 Vol.3 No.2, pp.126 - 156

Received: 21 Jan 2012
Accepted: 23 Jan 2012
Published online: 31 Jul 2014 *

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