CITIES, UNIVERSITIES AND THE GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

Cities, universities and the global knowledge economy looks at how universities manage both their international education activities and their community engagement strategies (see the definitions in the sidebar).  Cities and universities are forging new partnerships to increase their competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. 

Singapore, Qatar and others have strategies to attract prestigious, world class universities.  Singapore aspires to become the ‘global schoolhouse’.  Adelaide has both ‘education city’ and ‘university city’ aspirations.  Perth promotes its ‘education city’ brand.  Melbourne claims to be a leading ‘global knowledge city’.

What exactly are they trying to achieve? How effective are these strategies, and what benefits have they brought?  Are they sustainable contributions to the economic and social life of the city?  

“Australia’s knowledge cities: work in progress”  Australian Higher Education Congress 2009.

Seminar on “Asia and the global knowledge economy”.

With Cecile Cutler “The global knowledge economy, the university and the Southeast Asian city” in Wong Tai Chee and Brian Shaw (eds) Challenging Sustainability: Urban Development and Change in Southeast Asia (Marshall Cavendish Academic, Singapore, 2006, pp 175-196).   

“Creating education cities in the new global knowledge economy” South Australian Policy Online. Presented at a conference on Learning Cities in 2005.

“Cities, universities and global competitiveness”.  Institute of Australian Geographers Conference, 2004.

I have accepted an invitation to join the International Advisory and Review Board of the International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development.  The journal is published by Inderscience.

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ASIAN CITIES: RISK AND RESILIENCE

Stephen Hamnett (University of South Australia) and I are co-editing a book on contemporary Asian Pacific megacities.  The working title is Asian Cities: Risk and Resilience.   We have an exceptionally strong group of contributors, and a contract with Routledge to publish the volume.

Chapters and authors:

Beijing - Chaolin Gu, Tsinghua University, and Ian Cook, Liverpool John Moores University

Shanghai - Susan Walcott, University of North Carolina

Anthony Yeh - University of Hong Kong

Tokyo - Andre Sorensen, University of Toronto

Seoul - Seong-kyu Ha, Chung-Ang University

Taipei - Reginald Kwok, University of Hawaii and Liling Huang, National Taiwan University

Bangkok - Douglas Webster, Arizona State University

Manila - Brian Roberts, University of Canberra

Kuala Lumpur - Sirat Morshidi and Asyirah Abdul Rahim, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Jakarta - Wilmar Salim and Tommy Firman, Institute of Technology Bandung

Singapore - Belinda Yuen, National University of Singapore

Stephen and I worked together a few years ago on a special issue of Built Environment which was titled “Pacific Asian Cities: Challenges and Prospects”.

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STRENGTHENING URBAN SLUM UPGRADING AND URBAN GOVERNANCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Around 924 million people, according to UN Habitat 2003 estimates, live in urban slums and squatter settlements.  Over half of these people are in Asia.  Self-help squatter settlement improvement programs have been around since at least the beginning of the 20th Century, but they attracted the support of major international institutions from the early 1970s.  So why, nearly 40 years later, are there still so many people living in slums and squatter settlements, and why are conditions within them so appalling?

I am a chief investigator for a project on Strengthening urban slum upgrading and urban governance in Southeast Asian cities.  It received Australian Research Council funding for 2005-2008, through the efforts of the late Dr Basil van Horan.  John Minnery has joined the team and has taken on the role of co-ordinator. 

The project is seeking to understand what works and what doesn’t work in slum improvement programs, and what institutional structures can be put in place to improve success.  We are in the latter stages of the project, which focuses on slums in three cities: Bandung, Hanoi and Manila/Quezon City.  The teams undertaking the fieldwork have almost completed the empirical research. 

Team members:

Assoc Prof John Minnery (University of Queensland)

Prof Tommy Firman (Institute of Technology Bandung)

Dr Teti Argo (Institute of Technology Bandung)

Dr Haryo Winarso (Institute of Technology Bandung)

Prof Do Hau (Hanoi Architectural University)

Pham Thi Thu Huyen (Hanoi Architectural University)

Cynthia Veneracion (Ateneo de Manila University)

Prof Gavin Jones (National University of Singapore)

A longer paper on the project can be found here.

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INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

I continue to be intrigued by the challenges facing universities, and try to bring together my two main interests: international education and community engagement.  

Managing the growth of international education.  For instance, what strategies can be developed to increase the number and quality of international higher degree research students.  I presented a paper at the 2007 European Association for International Education conference in Trondheim, and I will soon revise this and publish it online.   

Community engagement in universities is developing in exciting ways as well, with some provocative theoretical shaping of the agenda.  We will continue to see innovation in the way universities engage with their communities.