You hear a lot these days about "innovation and entrepreneurship" and
about how "good jobs" in tech will save our cities. Yet these common
tropes hide a stunning reality: local lives and fortunes are tied to
global capital. You see this clearly in metropolises such as San
Francisco and New York that have emerged as "superstar cities." In these
cities, startups bloom, jobs of the future multiply, and a meritocracy
trained in digital technology, backed by investors who control deep
pools of capital, forms a new class: the tech-financial elite. In The
Innovation Complex, the eminent urbanist Sharon Zukin shows the way
these forces shape the new urban economy through a rich and illuminating
account of the rise of the tech sector in New York City. Drawing from
original interviews with venture capitalists, tech evangelists, and
economic development officials, she shows how the ecosystem forms and
reshapes the city from the ground up.
Zukin explores the people and plans that have literally rooted digital
technology in the city. That in turn has shaped a workforce, molded a
mindset, and generated an archipelago of tech spaces, which in
combination have produced a now-hegemonic "innovation" culture and
geography. She begins with the subculture of hackathons and meetups,
introduces startup founders and venture capitalists, and explores the
transformation of the Brooklyn waterfront from industrial wasteland to
"innovation coastline." She shows how, far beyond Silicon Valley, cities
like New York are shaped by an influential "triple helix" of business,
government, and university leaders--an alliance that joins C. Wright
Mills's "power elite," real estate developers, and ambitious avatars of
"academic capitalism." As a result, cities around the world are caught
between the demands of the tech economy and communities' desires for
growth--a massive and often--insurmountable challenge for those who hope
to reap the rewards
of innovation's success.
