Unpublished Paper
Innovation Districts: Economic Development Innovation or Shiny New Bottle?
version prepared for Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning conference
(2015)
Abstract
Innovation districts are fast gaining attention as a new strategy in urban economic
development, perhaps becoming an incipient fad. They have been promoted energetically by the
Brookings Institution’s Bruce Katz among others (Katz and Bradley 2013; Katz 2014; Katz and
Wagner 2014) and buoyed by the ostensible successes of early adopters Barcelona and Boston.
As additional cities in the United States and worldwide move to establish and promote
innovation districts, it is important to consider whether they represent a potentially effective and
valuable approach in economic development.
What are the distinguishing features or characteristics of innovation districts? Do
innovation districts present a substantive advancement in economic development policy, or are
they more appropriately interpreted as efforts to recombine or advertise conventional policies
under a more contemporary rubric? Must they be planned or can innovation districts arise
without intentional public action? How can we evaluate their promise regarding the aims of
fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic dynamism?
Because nearly all existing innovation districts are immature, it is not yet feasible to
conduct rigorous empirical analyses of their performance. Therefore, we address the questions
raised around innovation districts by concentrating on three tasks. (1) We establish and justify a
precise definition of innovation districts and identify their characteristic features, with reference
to existing and proposed examples in the United States and elsewhere (Barnett et al. 2014).
Given the current ambiguity of the term in practice, this is a crucial step for understanding the
strategy and being able to assess its originality. (2) We evaluate the merit of innovation districts
with respect to theories and current understandings of the spatial aspects of innovation and
entrepreneurship (e.g., Shearmur and Bonnet 2011; Audretsch and Pena-Legazkue 2012). To
what extent does the design of innovation districts correspond with conceptions of productive
regional innovation processes? (Cooke 2002) (3) We present and preliminarily defend our
judgment as to whether innovation districts are likely to be effective in advancing regional
economic development goals.
Keywords
- innovation district,
- economic development,
- innovation,
- entrepreneurship
Disciplines
Publication Date
2015
Citation Information
Joshua Drucker and Amanda Kass. "Innovation Districts: Economic Development Innovation or Shiny New Bottle?" version prepared for Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning conference (2015) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jdrucker/35/