Generative growth with ‘thin’ globalization: Cambridge’s crossover model of innovation

Abstract

Changes in leading-edge urban and regional development processes and policies signify the rise of the ‘Quaternary’ or 4.0 Era of economic growth. Few such spaces exist yet, but they have prodigious global reach from locations like Cambridge (as the exemplar here), Israel and Silicon Valley. Their surface spread has led to the designation ‘thin globalization’ compared with ‘thick’ antecedents based on manufacturing and routine services. Each displays ‘post-cluster’ or ‘platform’ inter-connectivity and even early signs of ‘de-globalization’ via on-shoring of suppliers. Pioneers in ‘crossover’ innovation 4.0 platform evolution include ‘flagship’ corporations like FAGAMi (Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft). These and other flagships acquire and site labs in proximity to Cambridge’s and other university research institutes and talent. They work to what seems like a neoliberal ‘Plan for the Future’ in at least three cases embedded in futuristic urban design utopias. This further advantages innovation ‘microsystems’ like Cambridge and innovation ‘macrosystems’ like Silicon Valley that evolve diversified ‘platform-clusters’ of ‘crossover’ innovations flowing from interactions among microelectronic systems, advanced mobility, machine learning, AI, robotics be mitigated healthcare. The research problem is how can such extreme uneven growth polarization and