Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation

• Published in: Progress in human geography Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 31 - 56
• Main Authors: Bathelt, Harald, Malmberg, Anders, Maskell, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA SAGE Publications 01.02.2004; Arnold; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Bgi / Prodig; Channels of communication; Cluster analysis; Clustering; Codification; Communication; Companies; Economic activity; Economic conditions; Economic geography; Geography; Geography of markets and trade services; Global local relationship; Globalization; Human geography; Information sharing; Interaction teaching; Interactive learning; Knowledge; Knowledge management; Learning; Learning processes; Local knowledge; Location of industry; Pipelines; Spatial analysis; Tacit knowledge; Telecommunications. Mass media; Transfer; knowledge creation; pipelines; buzz; clusters; absorptive capacity; Spatial concentration; Innovation; Technology; Network; Enterprise; Glocalisation; Knowledge; Communication
• ISSN: 0309-1325; 1477-0288
• DOI: 10.1191/0309132504ph469oa

The paper is concerned with spatial clustering of economic activity and its relation to the spatiality of knowledge creation in interactive learning processes. It questions the view that tacit knowledge transfer is confined to local milieus whereas codified knowledge may roam the globe almost frictionlessly. The paper highlights the conditions under which both tacit and codified knowledge can be exchanged locally and globally. A distinction is made between, on the one hand, the learning processes taking place among actors embedded in a community by just being there dubbed buzz and, on the other, the knowledge attained by investing in building channels of communication called pipelines to selected providers located outside the local milieu. It is argued that the co-existence of high levels of buzz and many pipelines may provide firms located in outward-looking and lively clusters with a string of particular advantages not available to outsiders. Finally, some policy implications, stemming from this argument, are identified.