The Triple Helix of Smart Cities

Mark Deakin, Edinburgh Napier University

School of Engineering and Built Environment, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, EH10 5DT, Scotland: m.deakin@napier.ac.uk

http://www.northsearegion.eu/ivb/home/

The triple helix

Unlike other accounts of knowledge production, the Triple Helix model:

• studies networks of university-industry-government relations and offers a neo-evolutionary model of a knowledge-based economy;

• proposes the three evolutionary functions shaping the selection environments of a knowledge-based economy are: (i) organized knowledge production, (ii) the intellectual capital of economic wealth creation and (iii) reflexive control;

• suggests that as reflexivity is always involved in knowledge production, the functions which they serve are not given, but socially constructed.

The triple helix of (smart) cities

From this neo-evolutionary perspective, the knowledge-base economy of cities can be modelled as networks of organized knowledge production. That is to say, networks of organized knowledge production in which:

• universities generate intellectual capital, industry create economic wealth and government regulate civil society;

• the dynamic inter-play of their intellectual capital, creativity and regulation promote innovation;

• the innovation is systematic, networked and organized around information and communication technologies (ICTs);

• the services this produces are in turn subject to the reflexivity of social construction.

the proposition Using this model, it is also possible to suggest:

• The dynamics currently at play in the reflexive overlay of these technologies, are themselves being exploited to generate the notion of:• “creative cities” (Landry, 2008);• “intelligent cities” as the knowledge base of such creativity

(Komninos, 2008);• “smart cities” whose creativity is even “smarter” (Hollands, 2008).

Not just in the way their technologies generate intellectual capital, or create economic wealth, but communities within environments that co-produce knowledge in innovation systems which are sufficiently creative to co-evolve with the socially-constructive nature of such developments;

• “selection environments” (Deakin, 2010). That co-produce knowledge in innovation systems which are able to co-evolve as part of a meta-stabilization. That is by way of environments which replace the destabilizing, dis-organizing and fragmentation tendencies of existing systems, through the configuration of a “smarter” alternative offering a socially-constructive integration….. of the services under development.

emerging smart cities typology

• “creative cities” of ideas and learning (Landry, 2008);

• “intelligent cities” as the knowledge base of such learning and creativity (Komninos, 2008);

• “smart cities” whose creativity is even “smart-er” (Hollands, 2008). Not just in the way the ICTs of community development generate intellectual capital, or create wealth, but environments that govern the collective learning and co-production of knowledge in innovation systems which are sufficiently creative to co-evolve with such regional innovation systems;

• “selection environments” that collectively learn from and co-produce knowledge in innovation systems which are able to co-evolve as part of a meta-stabilization. That is by way of environments which replace the destabilizing, dis-organizing and fragmentation tendencies of existing systems, through the configuration of a “smarter” alternative offering the prospect of integration.

eGov service developments

• Customisation

• Capacity-building

• Co-design of services

• Multi-channel communications related to given user-profiles

policy drivers

• Competition

• Competition and social

cohesion

• Competition, social

cohesion and

environmental quality

• Transformational

government as a basis

for sustainable

development

service development stages in knowledge economy and information society

• Information

• Communication

• Transaction

• Customer-

centric

• User-friendly

• Open,

transparent,

accountable

and

democratic

The typology

The critical insight

Seeing cities as a co-evolutionary mechanism for the meta-stabilization of existing institutional arrangements offers a critical insight taking us beyond the dismantling of national systems and construction of regional advantages, i.e. that “terms of reference” which currently falls under the remit of “innovations systems”. It suggests:

• the reinvention of cities which is currently taking place cannot be defined as a top-level “trans-disciplinary” issue without a considerable amount of “bottom-up” cultural reconstruction.

• this cultural reconstruction has not yet been given the consideration it demands. For existing accounts tend to reify the global status of the process and fail to appreciate the meta-stabilizing dynamic of the technologies underlying this and supporting the knowledge-based economy.

Getting beyond national and regional systems

– The triple helix represents the “modes” of communication currently operating as the informational technologies (ICTs) of such “manifestations”.

– “Manifestations” of organized knowledge production whose generation of intellectual capital, creation of economic wealth and ICTs produce a meta-stabilizing dynamic.

– That meta-stabilization played out on a global stage and within (trans-national) regions, whose ICT-related environments not only reflect, but are the medium by which their cultural reconstruction becomes manifest.

– Becomes manifest as “world class” cities, not just in terms of the intellectual capital they generate, or economic wealth this creates, but in relation to the ICT-related environments civil society assembles as a means to govern the standards of this regulating dynamic.

It is the potential of this cultural reconstruction to work as a meta-stabilizing dynamic and reflexive layer that lies behind the surge of academic interest which is currently being directed at communities as the “practical” manifestation of organized knowledge production and the intellectual capital of wealth creation. This goes some way to account for why

the ICT-related environments of e-

government are currently such critical

issues and the e-service developments

associated with them are also so

significant.

the SmartCities baseline study

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

University

Learning

Government

Market

Industry

Knowledge

EU27

Smart cities

http://www.smartcities.info

Smart Cities in the

North Sea Region:Bremerhaven

Edinburgh

Groningen

Karlstad

Kortrijk

Kortrijk region

Kristiansand

Norfolk

Osterholz-Scharmbeck

University: % people aged 20-24

enrolled in tertiary education

Industry: Number of companies per

1,000 inhabitants

Government: % labour force in

government sector-L to Q

Learning: Labour force with ISCED 5

and 6 education

Market: Per capita GDP

Knowledge: Patent applications to the

EPO per 1,000 inhabitants

Baseline data is for 2006

First Cut

the SmartCities baseline study

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

University

Learning

Government

Market

Industry

Knowledge

EU27

Smart cities

http://www.smartcities.inf

o

Smart Cities in the

North Sea Region:Bremerhaven

Edinburgh

Groningen

Karlstad

Kortrijk

Kortrijk region

Kristiansand

Norfolk

Osterholz-Scharmbeck

University: % people aged 20-24

enrolled in tertiary education

Industry: Number of companies per

1,000 inhabitants

Government: % labour force in

government sector-L to Q

Learning: Labour force with ISCED 5

and 6 education

Market: Per capita GDP

Knowledge: Patent applications to the

EPO per 1,000 inhabitants

Baseline data is for 2006

IP

RTD

ICT-related

employment

knowledge economy

e-services

Information Society

i2010Second Cut

The emergence of “world class” cities:the case of Montreal • Montreal is recognized as a city particularly successful in

reinventing itself as “world class” and emerging as a “creative” force within the region (Florida, 2004; Slolarick and Florida, 2006).

• So far the only thing offered to explain the growth of Montreal as a leading exponent of “cultural reconstruction” has been a list of enabling conditions, such as:

• a strong research, development and technological culture;• university involvement underpinned by industry;• industry supported by policy makers, strong leadership and

corporate strategies directed towards the creative sector.

This reconstruction thesis is sometimes referred to as “picking up and capitalising on the creative slack”

some marginal notes on the evolving cultural reconstruction of “world class” cities

• The cultural reconstruction of cities like Montreal show how the creative ecology of an entrepreneur-based and market dependent representation of knowledge-intensive firms, is currently in the process of being replaced with a community of policy makers, academic leaders and corporate strategists.

• Communities that in turn have the potential not to so much “rise-up as a creative class”, but liberate cities from the stagnation which they have previously been locked into by offering them freedom to develop polices, with the academic leadership and corporate strategies capable of reaching beyond the idea of “creative slack”.

• To reach beyond this and for something smart-er, cities need their intellectual capital to not only meet the requirements of economic wealth creation, but become the regional centres of such “knowledge producing communities”. Knowledge producing communities whose intellectual capital and economic wealth creation is distinguished by virtue of the academic leadership, corporate strategies and ICT-enabled environments understood to be socially-constructive in opening-up, reflexively absorbing and discursively shaping the governance of such developments.

Using the Triple Helix model, it can be recognized such a cultural reconstruction of cities however liberal and potentially free, is not merely the creative outcome of market economics, but of the policies, academic leadership and corporate strategies which operate within ICT-enabled environments .

Breaking News..... Triple Helix - Building a Canadian Social Innovation Marketplace

The Canadian government has issued an open call for input on how their R&D innovation system could be improved. Despite pumping in over $7 billion a year the country continues to fall further and further behind other nations in terms of innovation capability.

The balance of evidence suggests that many Canadian universities are first-rate scientific institutions. But in the context of the knowledge-based economy, it is not considered sufficient for a country's universities to produce groundbreaking scientific research in isolation. A growing body of research suggests that effective links between the three principle innovation funding/performing sectors of academia, business and government are an important contributor to a successful national innovation system.

Source: Cloud Computing Journal, January, 6th, 2011

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