Economy of the knowledge, city and competitiveness
Since the late 80s, Barcelona has become an international metropolis
where the international competitiveness of the Spanish economy has mainly been
concentrated. Until now, the ways of understanding the reasons why Barcelonas economic
performance has achieved such a remarkable situation are taken principally
from an urban perspective. Different research programs have underlined the existence
of specifically territorial competitiveness elements: closeness to European markets,
broadening of the metropolitan area, and the existence of territorial-based external
economies as localization, urbanization and network economies.
This research points out another feature in Barcelonas new economic model that is
also common to other of the most developed cities and economies of the world; changing
their production foundations towards a fundamental issue: the boost for knowledge-
based economy. The aim is to find out how far the changes detected in the ways
of production and in the location of the economic activity are linked with the growing
of high-densely knowledge-based activities; and whether the international success of
the Barcelonas model could be partly explained by the growing up of higher technology
and high-densely knowledge-based activities.
Check other articles from the issue Otoño 2002 or from other issues.