What do place-makers actually do to sustain knowledge dynamics? Place-making practices in a Czech suburban knowledge location

ABSTRACT

Knowledge locations are expected to generate interactions among multiple knowledge actors, address these actors’ ongoing spatial needs, and provide the conditions of their engagement for a meaningful experience. However, little is known about the practices needed to overcome these challenges. This article investigates three place-making practices through which actors (public research labs, public institutions, firms, municipalities, and local communities) build a commonly shared identity and meaning of place. Focusing on a case study of the ‘Star Cluster’ on the southern outskirts of Prague, Czechia, we discuss how these practices contribute to overcoming the challenges of knowledge locations in a suburban environment and help to establish intangible experiences, tangible features, and a new identity of place. The agency of various actors and place-making practices contributes to enriching our understanding of the link between urban and knowledge dynamics.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge location
• place-making
• practices
• knowledge dynamics
• suburbs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author

Notes

1 See for instance ‘knowledge and innovation spaces’ (Pancholi, Yigitcanlar, and Guaralda 2015), ‘innovation clusters’ (Esmaeilpoorarabi, Yigitcanlar, and Guaralda 2018), or ‘innovation districts’ (Yigitcanlar, Adu-McVie, and Erol 2020).

2 Star stands for ‘Science Technology Advanced Region’ (http://www.star-cluster.cz/en/home/).

3 ELI Beamlines is part of the ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) pan-European project.

4 The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Prof. Mourou, initiator of the ELI project, jointly with Prof. Strickland ‘for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses’ (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2018/summary/).

5 This was at that time when the Czech national R&D policy started to regionalize and imposed the creation of regional innovation strategies (RIS3). The mayor of Dolní Břežany was an elected representative on the regional council at that time and promoted this new agenda in the Central Bohemia region.

6 Rigaku has three research and development centers worldwide, in Tokyo, Detroit and Dolní Břežany.

7 As a recognition of the dynamism of this zone, CzechInvest awarded Star in 2017 for its approach to developing business and the investment environment in the country.

8 European Digital Innovation Hubs are part of Digital Europe Programme which plans to invest €9.2 billion to align the next long-term EU budget 2021–2027 with increasing digital challenges.

9 The European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) is a legal framework created by the European Commission to allow the operation of Research Infrastructures of Pan-European interest.