Knowledge Economy, Cultural and University Planning
The Major driving factors of Territorial
Attractiveness and Competitiveness?

Paris - La Défense, France
Ministère de l'écologie, de l'énergie, du Developpement durable et de l'Aménagement du territoire
Université Lille Nord de France
Laboratoire Territoires, Villes, Environment & société

Public and private institutions such as universities, research groups and foundations, firms, institutes of higher education, etc…, the so-called “Knowledge industries” (Kunzmann, 2006), develop and promote knowledge at a local scale. At the same time, they are obliged to deal with a global market, according to a process of re-scaling. The complexity of the re-scaling process is posed combining two main scales: the local scale approach, is necessary in order to identify what are the factors of urban attractiveness and in which way they can be taken into account in the university planning projects; on the other side decision-makers must pay attention to the inhabitants quality of life too. It means that both scales must be taken into account at the same time. In both case the problem is of creating (or strengthening) the territorial identity, by mean of marketing approaches based on brands, often emphasized by a label. This is why, more and more territories are identified by a progressive clustering approach.

A cluster is a specific area that doesn’t easily integrate with all others urban functions. Thus, some criticisms emerge concerning the progressive “clustering” territory process. In the context of advanced economies, the university comes back as one of the key-actors of the urban growth. This allows us to imagine a new role for universities, embedded in the cultural equipment system. The necessity to reorganize the French universities, sometimes located in suburban campus (new or refurbished), demonstrates the difficulty in structuring a real territorial project which can include these places in broader processes of cultural and creative production. This symposium aims to identify how these problems are taken into account in the other countries.

The main themes faced by the conference were:
1. Urban Policies. Managing knowledge, economy and culture, enhancing territorial attractiveness and competitiveness.
2. The different forms of territorial attractiveness. The role of the urban design projects.
3. The subtle relations between places of knowledge transmission and production and the city. The different networks’ roles.

INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS:
• Javier Carrillo
Professor and President World Capital Institute, Mexico
• Cathy Garner
Chief Executive Officer Manchester: Knowledge Capital, United Kingdom
• Klaus Kunzmann
Professor University of Dortmund, Germany

FOR MORE INFORMATIONS AND CONTACTS
• Prof. Patrizia Ingallina
University of Lille
E-mail: patrizia.ingallina@univ-lille1.fr
• Alessandro delli Ponti
Phd University of Lille
E-mail: a.delli.ponti.tves@mail.com
Conference Website