Clustering and commuting patterns of knowledge workers. A comparative analysis of Barcelona and Helsinki metropolitan areas

Chica, Juan Eduardo; Marmolejo, Carlos

doi:10.1504/ijkbd.2016.076467

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…We use the term 'knowledge workers' for people with higher education qualifications (university or higher professional diplomas), working in creative or knowledge-intensive industries. The term 'knowledge workers' is frequently used in literature (Benson and Brown, 2007;Chica and Marmolejo, 2016a;Horwitz et al, 2003;Tremblay and Darchen, 2010); other frequently used and closely affiliated terms are 'creative knowledge workers' (Clifton and Cooke, 2009;Martin-Brelot et al, 2010;Musterd and Deurloo, 2006) or 'creative class' (Florida, 2002(Florida, , 2014Boschma and Fritsch, 2009;Hansen and Niedomysl, 2009;Lawton et al, 2010). Although these concepts are obviously overlapping, there has been considerable debate about how to define and analyse them.…”

Section: Who Are the Knowledge Workers?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Skills and cities: knowledge workers in Northwest-European cities

Bontje

Musterd

Sleutjes

2017

IJKBD

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In the early 21st century, attracting knowledge workers has become an essential ingredient of urban competitiveness strategies. Such strategies are often based on theories claiming that cities should attract highly skilled talent to stay or become economically successful. Such theories have meanwhile met with considerable criticism and empirical evidence seems to make the assumptions of these theories doubtful. The most frequently seen argument is that talent moves to places where there are jobs. However, if the focus shifts from attracting to retaining or from 'necessary conditions' to additional preferences, new avenues for policy and research open up. In this article we will first review the debate so far about what attracts and retains knowledge workers. We will then add recent empirical evidence to this debate from a survey of knowledge workers in the city-regions of Amsterdam and Eindhoven. Our survey results make clear that 'knowledge workers' are a highly diverse category in which we should distinguish subgroups with quite contrasting residential preferences. These preferences should be met to retain them to the area they settled in.

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