Knowledge, Information and Urban Space in the 21 st Century

1. Knowledge,Information and Urban Space in the 21st Century Presentation by Joel KotkinSenior Fellow, New America FoundationJISC International ColloquiumLondon, United KingdomJune 21, 2005www.joelkotkin.com

2. “there is no sin but ignorance” Christopher Marlowe,1576

3. Geography, Cities and Knowledge • Earliest cities emerged as centers of knowledge • Information about how to govern nature through calendars • Earliest writing to help with commerce • Alphabet emerges in Phoenician cities, precursors of modern commercial urbanity

4. Earliest Libraries Ancient Temples 3rd-1st Millennia BCE • Cities grew around temples, places that were sacred (Ur, Sumer, Harrapa ) • Great temples developed first large collections of books (example: Temple of Nabu in Babylon) • Distinctions between religion and science blurred at the time, yet the importance of accumulated knowledge well-understood in advanced civilizations

5. The Greek Cities and Knowledge “The country places and the trees don’t teach me anything, and the people in the city do.” Socrates

6. The First Great Knowledge Revolution (600BC -500 AD) • Greeks begin to construct libraries in key cities • Alexandria develops world’s first mega-library, establishing city as center of learning and knowledge in classical world (‘crown of all cities’); rivals like Pergamum follow suit • Rome develops own libraries, then re-creates them around their vast empire • Private collections become more commonplace through Greco-Roman period

7. Decline of Libraries: Root of Dark Ages in Europe • Destruction of two great libraries at Alexandria, 272 AD and 391 due to growing religious intolerance • Knowledge becomes dispersed, even lost • Origins of Dark Ages, as books are burned, banned and dogmatism reduces remaining libraries to theologically “acceptable” texts

8. The Chinese Knowledge Revolution (200 BCE-1700 AD) • Confucian and other classics stored at Palace libraries; First Emperor burns classics • Wealthy individuals begin to collect books themselves • Invention of printing by 9th Century accelerates development of libraries and Confucian academies • Libraries develop further under strong dynasties, (10,000 volumes in early Ch’ing palace library) and in monasteries; weaken as they decline due to pillaging and fires

9. The Islamic Knowledge Revolution (632-1500) • Arabs inherit remaining Greek, Roman knowledge • Muslims develop own literature, add influences from Persia and India • Great Libraries built in key cities (Baghdad’s 9th Century “House of Wisdom”, Cairo’s 11th Century “House of Learning”,with 1.6 million volumes, in Cordoba, Delhi, others) • Libraries under assault or decay as Sultanates decline in late Islamic Spain, Egypt, Ottoman Egypt…pattern to today

10. The Renaissance: Knowledge Takes a Great Leap • Rediscovery via Islamic sources of ancient Greek and Roman texts • Printing (1452) initiates literacy revolution • Great libraries developed both by Vatican and Italian City states (Venice’s 16th Century Library) • Rapid growth of literacy and libraries in northern Europe (societies with broad information, such as Holland and Britain, defeat book-burning cultures such as in Spain---Cervantes ‘Inquisition of the Books’

11. The Enlightenment: Science, Knowledge Boundaries Expanded • Scientific Knowledge becomes systematic • Translations of Indian, Persian, Chinese and Arabic texts integrated into collections • Beginnings of mass literacy in northern Europe and the Americas • Private collections become commonplace in expanding middle class

12. A Renaissance Observation “Why should man live if he cannot study?” --Willibald Pirckheimer, friend of the artist Durer, 1517

13. The Cosmopolitan City The miracle of toleration was to be found, “wherever the community of trade convened”. French historian Fernand Braudel on Venice, Antwerp, Amsterdam and London in the early Modern Period

14. The Expansion to Outsider Groups “the honor that knowledge will give us will be entirely ours, and it will not be taken from us by the thief’s skill…or by the passage of time.” Louise Labé 16th Century French Author

15. New Attitudes and Knowledge Shift the Global Balance of Power In 1601, Britain’s revenues were less than a tenth of Mogul India’s; within two hundred years, the relationship was totally reversed in England’s favor by a similar margin

16. The Crisis of theIndustrial City • Cities grow with enormous rapidity…in 1850 Britain first country with an urban majority • Industrialization makes pollution and other health hazards critical • Middle Class and aristocrats look for a way out while cultivating their knowledge and the arts • Value of artisans’ skills decline and dissatisfaction rises among new proletariat

17. Industrial cities boosted crowding dramatically Urban Land Use 1400-1850 Square meters/Person

18. Urban Disaster “The cottages are very small, old and dirty, while the streets are uneven, partly unpaved, not properly drained and full of ruts. Heaps of refuse, offal and sickening filth are everywhere interspersed with pools of stagnant liquid. The atmosphere is polluted by the stench and is darkened by the smoke of a dozen factory chimneys.” Frederick Engelson Manchester in 1844

19. The 20th Century : the Spread of Knowledge and Reform of Urban Space • European, American and Australian cities begin to reform their physical environments • Universal education enacted, including for males in early 20th Century Japan • Knowledge is democratized to an unprecedented extent and distributed over an ever wider area

20. The Democratization of Libraries First Landmark: The Boston Public Library • Founded in 1848, first in nation to be municipally supported and allow people to borrow books and materials • Today has 27 branches and over six million books • Critical part of intellectual environment of “Athens of America”

21. Second Great Landmark: The New York Public Library • New York had private libraries, such as the Astor and Lenox, but started work on first public library in 1902…completed in 1911 with one million books • Establishment of nation’s largest branch system, operating with 39 Carnegie funded libraries; now has 85 in system with 11.6 million items • System now visited by 10 million people annually and over 2.3 million cardholders, largest system in nation

22. Spreading the Wealth: The Carnegie Libraries • First one built in 1894 in Pennsylvania • 1895 The Carnegie Library opens in Pittsburgh • Over the next few decades, Carnegie donated 2,806 libraries throughout the English speaking world, including many small towns and villages

23. “‘Town’ and ‘city’ will be in truth, terms as obsolete as ‘mail coach.’” The British Vision of Urbanity:The Garden City “Town and country must be marriedand out of this joyous union will spring a new hope, a new life, a new civilization.” Ebenezer Howard -H.G. Wells, Anticipations of the Mechanical & Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought (1902)

24. Enter the Digital Age • Libraries and publishers become a portal for new information technology • The processing of digitized information critical to individuals and companies • Traditional Information hierarchies threatened

25. Cities, Place and the Information Age • Information revolution allows smaller places and emerging economies greater leverage • Urban growth taking place largely in regions with least access to knowledge • Developing countries become new players in science and technology • The critical issue: Those left behind

26. People in Urban Areas An Urbanizing World

27. Growth in Urban Population

28. The European Era Largest cities1900 London New York Paris Berlin Chicago Vienna Tokyo St. Petersburg Philadelphia Manchester Birmingham Moscow Source: Villes et Campagnes, Paris, 1988

29. Urbanity Shifts towards Asia Largest Cities 1950 New York London Rhineland (Germany) Tokyo Shanghai Paris Buenas Aires Chicago Moscow Calcutta Los Angeles Osaka Source: Villes et Campagnes, Paris, 1988

30. European Cities Gone from the Top Largest Cities 1994 Tokyo New York Sao Paulo Mexico City Shanghai Mumbai Los Angeles Beijing Calcutta Seoul Jakarta Source: World Bank

31. Technology Shifts the Locational Paradigm • New technology could telescope the distance between communities • Corporate functions can be more efficiently dispersed to suburbs • Technology turns former backwaters into potential global hubs

32. Suburbia Triumphant: The American Pattern United States 1950-2000 Source: Demographia

33. Since 2000: Seeking Smaller Places

34. The Declustering Trend: Alas, Paris and London, too Source: Demographia

35. The Asian Dimension Tokyo goes horizontal…both jobs and residents 1970-1995 Source: A. Sorenson

36. Declustering: US Job Growth Remains Centered in Low- and Moderate-density Areas Average Employment Growth (%)1990-1998 Low County Population Density High Source; Joint Center Tabulations of the Regional Economic Information System (REIS) database

37. Central City & Suburban Office SpaceDevelopment, 1986-99 Millions of Square Feet 100 Downtown Suburban 80 60 40 20 0 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 Source: Milken Institute

38. The New Economy Covers More Than Traditional “High Tech” Examples: • Fashion industry (design, marketing, media) • Entertainment (Digital Effects, Synthespians) • Warehousing (Just-in-time information systems) • Financial Services (on-line brokerages, banking,insurance) • Aerospace (“electronic warfare”) • Healthcare (genetic engineering, information sharing, biomedicine) • Agriculture (plant technology, biotech, cloning) ALL industries are transforming themselves into information industries dependent on knowledge dissemination

39. Non-Financial Business Tangible Assets as a Percent of All Assets, 1955 - 2001 Percent 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 00

40. Increasing Insecurity in NYC Source: Securities Industry Association

41. Declustering: Tracking the Bubble Information Industry Employment 2000-2003 Analysis by David Friedman

42. Declustering Business and Professional Services Employment (1998-2003) Analysis by David Friedman

43. Smaller cities and towns already plug into dispersed digital networks “You look ahead and you can see the possibilities of a lot of vibrant communities in these places. You have a low cost of living, a great quality of life --- there’s a population there that wants to be there but can still participate in cutting edge, substantial work.” Doug Burgum, Great Plains Software

44. Virtuality is Coming… I leave my house in the country and drive 17 miles through the blue grass. But when I open my computer I am at my center, it feels like I am back in San Jose. It's a kind of virtual Silicon Valley.”Alan Hawse Director of CAD DevelopmentCypress Semiconductor

45. Global Declustering:Telecommunications Changes Everything Monthly Cost of leasing a line from Bangalore to Los Angeles source:Oncept,Inc.

46. Up and Comers and those Left Behind? • Large sections of the population, even in advanced countries have less access to new technology at home • Many countries in developing world are lagging in use of information • A return to the Carnegie paradigm? The Brazilian “Lighthouse”

47. Internet Users by Regions: A Shift to Asia

48. Vast Differences on a Global Level Internet Users Per 1000 Source: Nationmaster.com

49. Huge Gaps within One Critical Region: The Middle East Internet Users per 1000 Source: Nationmaster

50. A Regional Tragedy The whole Middle East stands in danger of being “left behind again” in the information age just as had occurred in the industrial era --- Syrian scholar Sami Khiyami, 2003