TCLab

What are the linkages between economic policies, including infrastructure investments, and job creation?

What makes a city innovative? And in what ways does innovation need the city (or not)? As the panelists at the recent “Building Blocks: Knowledge and Innovative Cities” conference addressed, innovation is not inevitable; it is the result of intentional policies and regulations with implications for social equity and economic development. “Building Blocks” was presented by the Technological Change Lab (TCLAB) at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP).

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“China cannot continue to survive in a culture that has both Beijing and Shanghai at the top of the structure and at the bottom, farmers farming with technologies that are a thousand years out of date.” That sentiment, spoken by a commentator on a CCTV news program this week, was surprisingly candid for the state-run news agency. But it nevertheless reflects a nationwide concern that has grown more prescient as China’s breakneck growth is increasingly accompanied by social and economic inequality.   

"I'm very privileged to have the opportunity to be part of TCLab’s research team. TERI, our comparative project on Brazil-India, is our intellectual effort that commits to a careful look at interdisciplinary pluralism on development questions. TERI is an exciting platform for exploring new paradigms for innovation combined with socio-economic egalitarianism in planning outcomes.

I came across some notes this week that I had made on technical standards for a UN agency in 2005. I focused on how firms and economies face technical standards and global regulations that may or may not assist their own local needs – from food to health to construction – but are often essential for the export trade of firms. In other words, buyers’ needs often dictate these standards.

This is not a trick question: In what way are vaccines and slaughterhouses the same or different? In my last blog I discussed technical standardization of materials and manufacturing processes. I argued for why those interested in economic and urban and regional development must attend to innovation and technical standards with both caution and optimism.