From regeneration to innovation: Developing inclusive urban innovation districts in Shanghai

Chen, Y. (Speaker)

Urban Development Management

Activity: Talk or presentation › Talk or presentation at a conference

Description

The rise of the so-called Urban Innovation Districts (UIDs) has shown a recent “urban turn” of knowledge location in the Western countries. Not only sub-urban knowledge hotspots are being urbanized but also innovation activities are increasingly concentrated in traditional urban fabric. Some grew organically round certain anchor institutes, others emerged through regeneration programs in traditional industrial districts. Policy makers welcome the rise of UIDs as they offer space where innovation, economic development and urban regeneration together. For Chinese cities with strong state intervention, it is interesting to explore how UIDs in Chinese context are developed and to what extent the state accommodate various UIDs developed with bottom-up initiative. In this paper, I examined how UIDs was developed in Yangpu District, Shanghai. The main questions raised are: 1. How is innovation accommodated in urban regeneration process of traditional urban districts? 2. What strategies have been explored to create sustainable innovation ecosystem? And 3. What role can the local government (agencies) to play in facilitating UID development, attracting and retaining talents in UIDs?

Period	9 Jun 2018 → 12 Jun 2018
Event title	EURA Conference: RECONCILING PAST AND FUTURE URBAN AND REGIONAL STRENGTHS
Event type	Conference
Location	Tilburg, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International

Keywords

Regeneration
innovation
community participation
sustainable innovation ecosystem
Shanghai
Yang District

Documents & Links

Cities and regions are facing a transition from industrial economy, society, city and government, to creative and knowledge-based ones. The mere lay-out of the city – in almost every respect - and its government are the results of past developments. Present policy issues, however, transgress territorial borders, which implies that addressing them requires innovative and adaptive cross-border co-operation. They also have to deal with the existing economic, societal, and physical context, while they - at the same time - necessitate smart approaches and smart solutions. How can we understand - and assess - the relationships between ‘old’ and ‘new’ characteristics of cities and regions? Can ‘old’ strengths contribute to the emergence and developments of ‘new’ strengths? Are their relations adversary or supportive or do we rather need a destruction of old structures and a creation of new ones? What kind of transformations do we witness, what kind of transformations do we need, evolution or replacement? These and other intriguing questions are the topics of the 2018 EURA Conference.