Towards an improved knowledge capacity of cities: the case of Rotterdam

In the past decades, the economic base of cities in advanced economies has shifted to a dominance of knowledge-based activities. Therefore, knowledge needs to be treated in urban policy as an important source of economic power and welfare. It is noteworthy that despite its importance, the urban knowledge capacity has seldom been investigated in an integrative way, including both creation and use of knowledge. First, this paper explores the urban knowledge capacity in a conceptual sense. It then turns to an empirical exploration, by using the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands as an example. Both corporate managers and urban politicians and planners are facing an increased uncertainty leading to a need for various new knowledge. A major challenge is to establish institutional structures that preserve open learning and link various policy fields with each other. The paper concludes with a discussion of important lines of future research and policy aimed at improving the urban knowledge capacity, including an evaluation framework for urban policy.