Stock, WG. 2011. Informational Cities: Analysis and Construction of Cities in the Knowledge Society. JASIST 62 (5): 963-986.

[Eugene Garfield]

Stock, WG. 2011. Informational Cities: Analysis and Construction of Cities in 
the Knowledge Society. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR 
INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 62 (5): 963-986.

Author Full Name(s): Stock, Wolfgang G.
Language: English
Document Type: Article

KeyWords Plus: RESEARCH COLLABORATION; REGIONAL-DEVELOPMENT; 
POSTINDUSTRIAL CITY; NETWORK SOCIETY; GLOBAL CITY; INNER-CITY; 
URBAN; POLARIZATION; ECONOMY; TECHNOLOGY

Abstract: Informational cities are prototypical cities of the knowledge society. 
If they are informational world cities, they are new centers of power. According 
to Manuel Castells (1989), in those cities space of flows (flows of money, 
power, and information) tend to override space of places. Information and 
communication technology infrastructures, cognitive infrastructures (as 
groundwork of knowledge cities and creative cities), and city-level knowledge 
management are of great importance. Digital libraries provide access to the 
global explicit knowledge. The informational city consists of creative clusters 
and spaces for personal contacts to stimulate sharing of implicit information. In 
such cities, we can observe job polarization in favor of well-trained employees. 
The corporate structure of informational cities is made up of financial services, 
knowledge-intensive high-tech industrial enterprises, companies of the 
information economy, and further creative and knowledge-intensive service 
enterprises. Weak location factors are facilities for culture, recreational 
activities, and consumption. Political willingness to create an informational city 
and e-governance activities are crucial aspects for the development of such 
cities. This conceptual article frames indicators which are able to mark the 
degree of "informativeness" of a city. Finally, based upon findings of network 
economy, we try to explain why certain cities master the transition to 
informational cities and others (lagging to relative insignificance) do not. The 
article connects findings of information science and of urbanistics and urban 
planning.

Addresses: Univ Dusseldorf, Dept Informat Sci, D-40225 Dusseldorf, Germany
Reprint Address: Stock, WG, Univ Dusseldorf, Dept Informat Sci, Univ Str 1, D-
40225 Dusseldorf, Germany.

E-mail Address: stock at phil.uni-duesseldorf.de
ISSN: 1532-2882
DOI: 10.1002/asi.21506
URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.21506/abstract