|
|
|
Book=20
Review
Canada and the=20
United States
| Margaret Pugh =
O'Mara. Cities of Knowledge: Cold War=20
Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley. =
(Politics=20
and Society in Twentieth-Century America.) Princeton: =
Princeton=20
University Press. 2005. Pp. xiii, 298. =
$35.00.
|
| Margaret =
Pugh O'Mara=20
has written a very good book that successfully engages =
important=20
issues in recent U.S. history and carries implications for =
current=20
economic development policy. "Cities of knowledge" are not =
entire=20
metropolitan regions but rather specific subareas that are =
"filled=20
with high-tech industries, [with] homes for scientific =
workers and=20
their families, with research universities at their heart." =
The=20
pioneer and model is Silicon Valley, the paragon that =
economic=20
development officials all over the world want to inscribe on =
their=20
own regions. |
1 |
| =20
Is there anything new to say about =
Silicon=20
Valley after John Findlay's chapter in Magic Lands: =
Western=20
Cityscapes and American Culture After 1940 (1992) and =
Annalee=20
Saxenian's Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in =
Silicon=20
Valley and Route 128 (1994)? The answer is "You bet =
there is.=20
O'Mara makes three new and important =
contributions." |
2 |
| =20
The contribution that has gained the =
most=20
attention is her presentation of systematically chosen case =
studies=20
that contrast Stanford-Silicon Valley with the efforts of =
the=20
University of Pennsylvania and Georgia Tech. Each of the =
cases is a=20
carefully crafted story of the interacting goals of =
university=20
administrators, local governments, corporations, and high =
tech=20
workers, drawing heavily from both university and local =
government=20
archives. The reference case=97Stanford=97is a private =
university in a=20
suburban location with great strength in physics and =
engineering.=20
Penn is a private university but urban in location with a =
biomedical=20
emphasis. Georgia Tech is public, urban, and strongest in=20
engineering. The keys to Stanford's success have been=20
entrepreneurial flexibility (Georgia Tech was constrained =
within the=20
state higher education system), abundant land (Penn got =
caught in=20
resistance to urban renewal), and the racial homogeneity of =
its=20
surrounding community (Penn had angry African American =
neighbors,=20
while Georgia Tech faced the preference of the Atlanta elite =
for=20
development in the white, northern =
suburbs). |
3 |
| =20
As with all good scholarship, the =
study begs=20
for other researchers to test the conclusions against other =
cases.=20
What about comparing private, suburban Stanford to a public, =
suburban university such as UC-Irvine or UC-San Diego? Could =
a=20
flagship state university such as Ohio State, with all its =
acres=20
along the Olentangy River, have fertilized a Silicon Corn =
Field? How=20
possible is it for high-tech companies themselves to seed =
the=20
development of a city of knowledge in the absence of a major =
research university, a path that urban planning scholar =
Heike Mayer=20
has traced for Portland? And what about the complex of =
biomedical=20
research and health products industries, especially given =
current=20
trends in the sources of gross domestic product? Do the =
National=20
Institutes of Health and related activities in the=20
Bethesda-Rockville corridor constitute a city of =
knowledge? |
4 |
| =20
O'Mara's second contribution is to=20
historicize the rise of the "suburb of knowledge" as a =
product of=20
national defense policy during the 1950s. Urban historians =
have=20
known that one of the factors of planning in the early =
atomic age=20
was an interest in metropolitan dispersal. O'Mara shows in =
detail=20
how defense procurement policies favored companies with =
suburban=20
locations, accelerating urban decentralization and peppering =
the=20
landscape with the clones of the Galactronics Branch of =
Yoyodyne=20
Corporation that novelist Thomas Pynchon invented for The =
Crying=20
of Lot 49 (1966). This chapter ties into the mainstream =
of urban=20
history, where Lizabeth Cohen, Thomas Sugrue, Robert Self, =
Becky=20
Nicolaides, and others have been grappling with the complex =
sources=20
of central city decline. |
5 |
| =20
The third contribution is to =
understand the=20
suburban research park as an extension of the historic =
American=20
taste for the isolated and self-contained university campus. =
The=20
bucolic campus, often in a small-town setting, was designed =
to=20
insulate students and faculty from the distractions of the=20
heterogeneous city. In its own time, the suburban research =
park=20
would be quiet, pretty, and largely white in its work force: =
reasons=20
why the University of Pennsylvania had to struggle with its =
Center=20
City location and why Atlanta's high tech industry preferred =
to be=20
far away from the Georgia Tech campus and its inner city =
neighbors. |
6 |
| =20
This is a cautionary tale that will =
resonate=20
with historians. Elected officials and economic development=20
departments are under enormous pressure to deliver =
investment and=20
jobs to their state and city, and they are eager to seize on =
formulas for success (most recently Richard Florida's =
nebulous idea=20
of a "creative class"). They all want to know how to apply =
the=20
lessons of Stanford, Penn, and Georgia Tech to their =
university and=20
city. O'Mara's careful study, unfortunately, reveals no =
magic=20
formula, just the messy contingencies of actual experience. =
In=20
short, it is exemplary history. |
7 |
| Carl=20
Abbott=20
|
| Portland =
State=20
=
University | | |