Article: Skills and cities: knowledge workers in Northwest-European cities Journal: International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development (IJKBD) 2017 Vol.8 No.2 pp.135 - 153 Abstract: In the early 21st century, attracting knowledge workers has become an essential ingredient of urban competitiveness strategies. Such strategies are often based on theories claiming that cities should attract highly skilled talent to stay or become economically successful. Such theories have meanwhile met with considerable criticism and empirical evidence seems to make the assumptions of these theories doubtful. The most frequently seen argument is that talent moves to places where there are jobs. However, if the focus shifts from attracting to retaining or from 'necessary conditions' to additional preferences, new avenues for policy and research open up. In this article we will first review the debate so far about what attracts and retains knowledge workers. We will then add recent empirical evidence to this debate from a survey of knowledge workers in the city-regions of Amsterdam and Eindhoven. Our survey results make clear that 'knowledge workers' are a highly diverse category in which we should distinguish sub-groups with quite contrasting residential preferences. These preferences should be met to retain them to the area they settled in. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Skills and cities: knowledge workers in Northwest-European cities

Authors: Marco Bontje; Sako Musterd; Bart Sleutjes

Addresses: Programme Group Urban Geographies, Centre for Urban Studies, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 15629, 1001 NC Amsterdam, Netherlands ' Programme Group Urban Geographies, Centre for Urban Studies, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 15629, 1001 NC Amsterdam, Netherlands ' Programme Group Urban Geographies, Centre for Urban Studies, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 15629, 1001 NC Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract: In the early 21st century, attracting knowledge workers has become an essential ingredient of urban competitiveness strategies. Such strategies are often based on theories claiming that cities should attract highly skilled talent to stay or become economically successful. Such theories have meanwhile met with considerable criticism and empirical evidence seems to make the assumptions of these theories doubtful. The most frequently seen argument is that talent moves to places where there are jobs. However, if the focus shifts from attracting to retaining or from 'necessary conditions' to additional preferences, new avenues for policy and research open up. In this article we will first review the debate so far about what attracts and retains knowledge workers. We will then add recent empirical evidence to this debate from a survey of knowledge workers in the city-regions of Amsterdam and Eindhoven. Our survey results make clear that 'knowledge workers' are a highly diverse category in which we should distinguish sub-groups with quite contrasting residential preferences. These preferences should be met to retain them to the area they settled in.

Keywords: knowledge workers; residential preferences; urban competitiveness strategies; amenities; residential attractiveness; creative class; consumer city; Europe; Amsterdam; Eindhoven.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKBD.2017.085152

International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 2017 Vol.8 No.2, pp.135 - 153

Received: 06 Oct 2016
Accepted: 06 Oct 2016
Published online: 13 Jul 2017 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article

Title: Skills and cities: knowledge workers in Northwest-European cities

Keep up-to-date