Institute For The Future

Ideopolis

In the course of continuing the work that Anthony Townsend and I did on science cities, I recently came across a London think-tank, the Work Foundation, and their studies of "idopolis." An ideopolis is the "twenty first century metropolitan version of what we first saw in Italian renaissance city states. The key elements are the airport, the university and the capacity to create new ideas-- either within or outside existing companies-- that buoyant demand, intellectual capital and business self confidence help to sustain."

Elsewhere, they go into more detail. An ideopolis is defined by:

• High levels of economic success
• High levels of knowledge intensity
• A diverse industry base including distinctive specialist niches
• One or more universities that have a mutually beneficial relationship with the city, leading to industries built on research strengths, transfer of knowledge to businesses and the retention of graduates
• Strong communications infrastructure and good transport links within the city and to other cities, including by air, rail and road
• A distinctive long-term ‘knowledge city’offer to investors and individuals alike, created by public and private sector leaders
• Strategies to ensure that all communities benefit from the economic success associated with knowledge.

The work is pretty UK-centric-- they focus on London and Edinburgh (which everyone knows is now either an outpost of London, or has secretly taken it over), and talk at length about the possibility of Manchester emerging as an ideopolis. Still, there's some interesting stuff there.