The first argument in this reading is that development in technology and innovations is the key to solving the economies’ challenges. Due to the growing role of innovations and production networks, there is a need to invest in universities to ensure a regular supply of elites familiar with the field to sustain the growing demand for technology experts. The reading argues that there was disinterest of the universities and research institutes in the local knowledge economies, and therefore there was a need for the development of innovation imaginaries.
To facilitate this, universities like Columbia NYU and other institutions started receiving technology and research grant and licensing fees for technological breakthroughs. Since federal R&D funds are the major support for the research institutes and universities, one common way to build on them is creating innovation districts around universities through incubators and amenities in assembling start-ups techs, advanced and creative manufacturing zones.
To achieve these strategies, the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) had to rethink its strategy and gathered relevant stakeholders to discuss the challenges facing digitalization and the increased shortages of software engineers (Indergaard 2). Some of the involved parties include corporate executives, entrepreneurs, academicians, and venture capitalists. Through this strategy, they argue that they are looking to reinvent the economy and think in ways nobody has felt before.
Another argument in the reading is that New York City is the “21st century city of innovation.” Although the idea does not cite any model to support the argument, it argues that the city has various selected qualities that qualify it as the 21st-century city of innovations. These qualities include core activities and actors, dynamics, supports, needs, and boundaries of the envisioned economic territory. The Centre for economic transformations (CET) stresses that New York has innovations in fashion, health care and medicine, technology, and media, unlike Silicon Valley (Indergaard 2). This means that New York is an all-around city, and it is not all about technology.
It also argues that the city is the most productive and creative in terms of knowledge, workforce, and finance and holds a unique global position of uniting people globally compared to other cities in the United States.
Through exploitation of those positions, the city has become competitive in the global field networks of innovative centers. It has shown its ability to reinvent itself, unlike Silicon Valley or Boston. To facilitate the imaginary vision of New York as the 21st century Centre of innovation, CET cites the need for accelerating the economic transformation and facilitating exchange between the academicians who are taking research on new tech and the private sector who are willing to bring R&D into the city. There is also a need to reduce barriers to innovation, such as shortages in training, space, and capital provision. In addition, attracting innovators from other centers will transform New York into an innovative global center where entrepreneurs can get support and collaboration.
The last argument is that once New York becomes the 21st century center of innovations and the universities become more technologically advanced, there will be more job opportunities for New Yorkers (Alliance for a Greater New York & New York Communities for Change [ALIGN] 1). Suppose the business elites avoid contentious local politics and embrace partnerships; they will rebuild the city economy and eliminate the unemployment streaming from a mismatch between knowledge economy and education. Alliance for a Greater New York & New York Communities for Change (ALIGN), therefore, calls for restructuring of education and retaining programs that serve the innovation in the city. It calls for all people to work together, which will lead to a just transition and a fair economy for low-income communities and workers. Envisioned projects for achieving these opportunities include constructing private charging stations, adapting waterfronts and industrial areas manufacturing facilities, produce and sell goods.
The three biggest strengths of these readings include the commitment to workforce development, commitment to the advancement of the green new deal, and commitment to building the economy. The US cities have been strongly dedicated to making the economy by building structures around the universities, building new research labs, and funding universities and research institutes to develop innovations and technologies. They have concentrated on the three districts of the knowledge economy. They include cultural industries, advanced and finance business services, and high-tech industries (Indergaard 2). Since cultural industries and progressive business and finance industries were existing, they have focused on the high-tech industries to make New York City a Centre for innovations in the 21st century. They have also ensured that funds are allocated to the university R&D for continuous innovations.
In addition, they are putting serious efforts into connecting with the local innovation economy (ALIGN 2). For instance, the Columbia University is adding 6.8 million square feet in teaching, recreational, and research facilities. NYU is also building square feet facilities on its Brooklyn engineering campus in Manhattan. On workforce development, the EDC is working with over 60 technology firms to alter school care curriculum and create TTP initiatives (Indergaard 7).
Companies like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook are providing jobs and smattering internships, which the biggest strengths out of embracing technology. Blasco administration also offered $9 million for the development of the federal workforce and $10 million for the city funds (Indergaard 7). In addition, both activists CBOs and employment training coalitions have continued to pressure the Blasco administration to ensure their workforce development policies are set up.
ALIGN has also been actively involved in coordinating protests against the deals made by the state and city governments to support the building of the HQ2 facility because they had allotted only $15 million to support 20,000 jobs among the low-income communities, which is a small amount (Indergaard 3). With the commitment to the advancement of the green new deal, ALIGN has taken a leading role in the New York renews where it has been advocating for promoting environmental laws at both state and local levels (ALIGN 2). It was successful in April 2019 when the city council passed the climate mobilization act, which provided large buildings to cut greenhouse emissions by 40% by 2030 (Indergaard 3). It also had provisions for the gas-fired plants to be replaced by renewable sources to support wind turbine technology development.
The three biggest weaknesses in these reading include lack of involving the schools. Yet, education is at the center of imaginary developments. The report issued by the partnership for NYC was highly desirable for the business elite to avoid contentious local politics and suggested a collaboration between then and nongovernmental bodies to reach a consensus on how to build the knowledge economy. The major suggestions were restructuring the education and retaining only the programs supporting the city’s innovations. The assumption in this argument is that the government would continue backing clean tech and life sciences. The report also suggested a reduction in government spending and increased funding to support the city’s recovery.
However, despite education being the center of this imaginary situation, the biggest weakness is that no educational representatives were involved in compiling the report. In addition, while they were aiming at job creations through investing in technology and innovations, there was no inclusion of uneducated communities, which is the larger population, as they did not have the skills to work on these jobs. Another weakness is channeling the research fund to other uses while the aim is developing research and innovations. This is evident in their technology transfer activities that had largely skipped over the local economy, and the funds meant for life sciences from the federal government flowed and were allocated to Pharms giants who had given their applications or were manufactured in the surrounding regions.
Despite the university occupying more than 20% of New York’s real estate, the funds were channeled to other institutions, and they couldn’t get funds for their research and innovation activities (ALIGN 2). While they greatly advocated for. The last weakness is on contention over inclusion. Blasio noted a growing inequality and cited his successor’s policies favored the well-off families while leaving others to the rising housing costs (ALIGN 2). To resolve this, De Blasio embraced the WFP agendas of ending aggressive policies increasing the minimum wage and increasing the paid sick leave. He also invested massively in public goods, especially education.
The major takeaway for a sociology major is that while investing in research and technology is good, it is equally important to think about the non-elite population, which constitutes the largest population. With the main aim of workforce development, these people will not get this opportunity as they will require a lot of training if they were to get employed in these high-tech industries. In addition, there is a need to put the public interest first when taking on projects in their name rather than doing for selfish ambitions. Funds should be employed in the right channels to ensure good development and a just city in the long run.
Works Cited
Alliance for A Greater New York & New York Communities for Change. Combating the Gentrification of Jobs in New York City. New York Foundation, 2018. Web.
Indergaard, Michael. “Beyond the “21st Century City of Innovation”: New York’s Evolving Imaginaries.” The Urban University and the Knowledge Economy, edited by Patrizia Ingallina, Routledge, 2020.