IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v39y2002i5-6p1037-1049.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trouble in E-topia: Knowledge as Intellectual Property

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher May

    (Faculty of Economics and Social Science, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS161QY, UK, christopher.may@uwe.ac.uk)

Abstract

This article looks at the claims made about the city's new workplace, where information-related endeavour is leading to a new world of work. However, this can only be regarded as a positive step in labour relations if the central role of intellectual property in the information age is forgotten or obscured. After briefly laying out the claims made about the new age, the article identifies the continued importance for capitalists of controlling property rights, leading to an examination of the continuing property-based relations between information labour and capital(ists). Rather than representing an e-topia, the city's new mode of economic activity exhibits significant continuities with previous modes of capitalism. The claims for the empowerment of information and knowledge-workers in the new age are therefore optimistic at best and mistaken at worst.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher May, 2002. "Trouble in E-topia: Knowledge as Intellectual Property," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(5-6), pages 1037-1049, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:39:y:2002:i:5-6:p:1037-1049
    DOI: 10.1080/00420980220128444
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420980220128444
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00420980220128444?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Smith, Woodruff D., 1984. "The Function of Commercial Centers in the Modernization of European Capitalism: Amsterdam as an Information Exchange in the Seventeenth Century," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(4), pages 985-1005, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roya Ghafele & Benjamin Gibert, 2014. "IP Commercialization Tactics in Developing Country Contexts," Journal of Management and Strategy, Journal of Management and Strategy, Sciedu Press, vol. 5(2), pages 1-15, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wouter Jacobs, 2014. "Rotterdam and Amsterdam as Trading Places? In Search of the Economic-Geographical Nexus between Global Commodity Chains and World Cities," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(4), pages 483-491, September.
    2. Simon, Curtis J., 1998. "Human Capital and Metropolitan Employment Growth," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 223-243, March.
    3. George Grantham, 2010. "What'S Space Got To Do With It? Distance And Agricultural Productivity Before The Railway Age," Departmental Working Papers 2010-04, McGill University, Department of Economics.
    4. Martin Korpi, 2008. "Does size of local labour markets affect wage inequality? a rank-size rule of income distribution," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 211-237, March.
    5. Simon, Curtis J. & Nardinelli, Clark, 2002. "Human capital and the rise of American cities, 1900-1990," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 59-96, January.
    6. Day Christian C., 2004. "Is There a Tulip in Your Future?: Ruminations on Tulip Mania," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 1-22, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:39:y:2002:i:5-6:p:1037-1049. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.