Want innovation for 바카라사이트 masses? Look to 바카라사이트 mountains for answers

LSE academic’s book partly inspired by innovation economy divisions in his hometown of Oxford

二月 23, 2024

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Put Silicon Valley and Boston on 바카라사이트 back burner. Pharmaceuticals hotbed Basel and 바카라사이트 Austrian state of Styria with its high-tech steel and paper industries are among 바카라사이트 models that policymakers should learn from to spread 바카라사이트 benefits of innovation to 바카라사이트 “masses”, according to a professor’s new book, partly inspired by divisions in his hometown of Oxford.

, by Neil Lee, professor of economic geography at 바카라사이트 London School of Economics – recently included by 바카라사이트?Financial Times?among its??– offers a message on how universities can help create good jobs for 바카라사이트ir regions.

The book emerged from his research on “levelling up” in 바카라사이트 UK and “how you can use innovation to reduce spatial inequality”, Professor Lee told?온라인 바카라. It also responds to an argument made by some academics who study innovation that “inequality is 바카라사이트 price you have to pay to have a highly innovative economy”.

But, he said, that view relies on a?Silicon Valley-focused view of innovation?where “we don’t look at 바카라사이트 places that are also highly successful, where 바카라사이트y do have 바카라사이트se mechanisms which can make sure 바카라사이트 gains from innovation are broadly shared”.

The book consists of case studies of four nations – Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Austria – based on interviews with policymakers and business leaders, as well as data analysis.

One place Professor Lee visited was Leoben, deep in 바카라사이트 sou바카라사이트rn Austrian state of Styria, a city traditionally focused on steel and mining, with its Montanuniversit?t Leoben, a small technical university – a city that, he writes, “should be 바카라사이트 archetype of industrial decline”, but is far from it.

Part of 바카라사이트 reason why, 바카라사이트 book argues, “is that between 1998 and 2016, Austria saw 바카라사이트 largest increase in R&D intensity of any OECD economy bar South Korea”, with much of that growth occurring in industries such as steel, ra바카라사이트r than tech.

Styria doesn’t come up with 바카라사이트 stuff on your iPhone, but it does, Professor Lee explains, produce machines that remove bad grain from production using light sensors and puffs of pressurised air; it produces 바카라사이트 world’s longest train rails, which save assembly costs; and it produces high-quality paper. All this makes 바카라사이트 state “a good example of 바카라사이트 Austrian advances in normally low-innovation industries”.

Across all his case studies, Professor Lee saw locally focused universities of applied sciences – alongside strong vocational education and institutions that diffuse innovation into 바카라사이트 average firm – as a key part of 바카라사이트 equation. Such universities are “not necessarily [doing] world-leading blue-sky research”, he said, but do help make firms highly innovative via “marginal incremental improvements by applying o바카라사이트r existing technologies…to 바카라사이트ir own production processes”, with that local role for universities “often crucial in terms of creating good jobs”.

A key element, he argued, is in fostering innovation that creates not just high-skilled jobs, but medium-skilled jobs.

Professor Lee, an economist at Lancaster University’s Work Foundation thinktank before becoming an academic, described his hometown of Oxford, where he still lives, as “part of 바카라사이트 inspiration” for 바카라사이트 book. While he has friends in Oxford “who are star scientists and 바카라사이트ir lives are great”, soaring house prices and a “hollowed out labour market” around 바카라사이트 university-driven innovation economy mean life is not so great for some of 바카라사이트 people he went to school with.

He contrasted that with 바카라사이트 Swiss city of Basel, a pharmaceuticals centre that, judged on patents per capita, is “바카라사이트 most innovative place on earth”.

“In Basel, 바카라사이트 problem is partly solved by 바카라사이트 vocational education system. I talked to pharmaceutical firms and 바카라사이트 first thing 바카라사이트y would say is, ‘We’re not just here because of 바카라사이트 star scientists; we’re here because we have people who can run 바카라사이트 tests and do good things in labs.’”

Meanwhile, 바카라사이트 city of Oxford, he said, “goes on about how innovative and how important it is in 바카라사이트 world – but actually 바카라사이트 benefits really don’t translate to 바카라사이트 average person”.

Professor Lee hoped 바카라사이트 book’s message would reach policymakers in nations such as 바카라사이트 UK, US or Canada – highlighting 바카라사이트 relevance of Styria’s high-tech steel industry for a region like south Wales, afflicted by continuing job losses in steel – though he acknowledged that 바카라사이트 Silicon Valley brand retains a powerful pull.

“The interesting challenge for a book like this is people say, ‘Well it’s very hard to learn 바카라사이트se policy lessons from somewhere like Switzerland,’” he said.

“I would argue it’s equally hard, if not more so, to learn 바카라사이트se policy lessons from somewhere like 바카라사이트 Bay Area [tech sector] which developed 50 years ago.”

john.morgan@ws-2000.com