Author Description

Innovative Cities presents a unique international comparison of innovation in Amsterdam, London, Milan, Paris and Stuttgart. Based on research funded by the ESRC program on 'Cities: Competitiveness and Cohesion', it compares and contrasts the reasons why these sites are among the top ten innovative cities in Europe. Innovation is one of the key driving forces of economic growth in modern economies.Economic growth in Europe is a key concern in Europe following the relatively poor performance of European economies when compared with North America, and, until recently, the Far East. Low economic growth is a primary cause of growing unemployment, income polarisation, social exclusion and depressed standards of living. Much economic activity is based in cities and this has led to much interest in what makes some cities much more successful than others in generating their own bases for local economic success.The research reported here takes a careful and directly comparable look at what characteristics and conditions in the five cities have led to the flourishing of innovation in them. Researchers with detailed local knowledge have applied the same analytical tools and survey techniques to investigating this question and the results present a unique international comparison of innovation in the five cities.