
Richard ShearmurMcGill University | McGill · School of Urban Planning
Richard Shearmur
PhD
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245
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Introduction
GEOGRAPHY OF INNOVATION:
- How can the location of innovation be defined?
- Municipal and non-market innovation;
- Innovation and knowledge in small towns and peripheral areas.
URBAN PLANNING & LOCATION OF EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY:
- How can mobile work be located?
- conceptualisation and measurement of work trajectories (as opposed to locations);
- Mobile work amongst different groups (low-wage, traditional sectors, knowledge workers...).
Additional affiliations
November 1998 - July 2013
August 2013 - present
Publications
Publications (245)
The purpose of this chapter is not to argue that cities and clusters do not play a distinct role in the innovation process: rather, it is an attempt to examine why cities and clusters are considered quintessentially innovative and why, conversely, small towns and peripheral areas are understood to be essentially non-innovative - notwithstanding the...
I describe, in this chapter, how innovation occurs in municipalities, and how municipalities are positioned to identify and develop small-scale solutions to sustainability-related issues. That these solutions are small-scale reflects both the size of municipalities and the particularities of each of them. However, small-scale does not mean insignif...
In this chapter we review interview evidence gathered between May and July 2020 in order to understand the effect that working from home during the pandemic has had on workers and to assess the likelihood of office work becoming more permament. We show that whilst workers enjoy working from home and would like to continue doing so part of the time,...
There is currently considerable interest in workers performing tasks from a variety of workplaces, such as co-working spaces, transport-networks and cafés. However, it remains difficult to ascertain the extent to which this workplace mobility is altering urban economic geography, since most analyses of the location of economic activity in cities ar...
Observation and theory confirm that economic activity can benefit from spatial agglomeration and clustering. Typically this has been analysed at the region or city scale, but recently micro-local and neighbourhood dynamics have drawn attention. Most studies first observe agglomeration, then infer or theorise processes that drive it; these inferred...
Amid growing geopolitical tensions and supply chain fragilities, many countries adopt new industrial policies aimed at reshoring strategic industries. Simultaneously, rising awareness of the link between feelings of disenfranchisement and regional development levels underscores the strategic importance of intra-national industrial location. Within...
We examine the link between neighborhood characteristics, the importance of knowledge exchange, and firm innovation in Montreal. To this end we combine two sources of data: place-of-residence census data from Statistics Canada and the results of an original firm survey. Through principal component analysis and subsequent clustering, we define five...
This chapter explores different viewpoints on the relationship between cities and innovation, and examines how the debate applies to Canadian cities. The first section provides an overview of innovation as a concept: Innovation is far more than high-tech gadgets, new products and production processes; and, innovation is also difficult to measure. T...
Résumé
Cet article porte sur la géographie urbaine et les dynamiques de l'innovation à l'échelle du quartier. Il s'agit de s'interroger quant à l'apport des quartiers en soutien à l'innovation et à comprendre, d'une part, dans quelle mesure et comment les entrepreneurs se servent du quartier et des lieux qui s'y trouvent pour obtenir et échanger de...
Local governments are often viewed as basic service and infrastructure providers that are neither particularly proactive nor innovative: in certain influential circles, this view has taken on the trappings of “common-sense,” and underpins the protracted undermining of public-sector organizations, a hallmark of neoliberalism. However, the COVID cris...
The Global Innovation Clusters’ Initiative (GIC) is an innovation program launched in Canada. This article aims to describe the policy, in particular its key similarities and differences with the Europe's Smart Specialisation (S3) policy initiative, and critically explore the logic behind its inception. The article reveals that although policy impl...
Since the late 1980s, there has been no explicit regional policy in Canada. Indirectly, though, equalization payments, industrial policies, as well as regional agencies encouraging the adoption of federal industrial and innovation policies, impact regional economies. In 2017, the federal government appeared to alter its approach: the Supercluster i...
Local development, especially in outlying or declining regions, is a perennial issue. “Neolocalism,” a combined marketing and community-building approach, draws upon and strengthens local identity and culture to create unique products, to bolster tourism and place branding, but also as ends in themselves. Craft breweries are often associated with n...
Collaborative innovation spaces (CIS) can bring together multiple actors to enhance creativity, collaboration and knowledge exchange, sometimes leading to innovation. In this paper, we suggest that CIS can be categorized into three broad types (internal to the firm, external and virtual) and that each type is related to innovation processes, knowle...
Résumé
Cet article porte sur le développement d'une nouvelle industrie, à savoir l'industrie brassicole dans la région périphérique de l'Est‐du‐Québec. Son objectif consiste à comprendre et décrire les principales activités des microbrasseries pour déceler leur apport au développement des régions de l'Est‐du‐Québec, à savoir le Bas‐Saint‐Laurent et...
A growing number of researchers suggest that there is no necessary connection between local firm-level innovation and local development. There are two connected arguments: first, many analysts suggest local innovation should be understood as a social and institutional process: from this perspective, just focusing on firms is too narrow. Second, reg...
The continued emphasis on innovation in urban and clustered settings has led many geographers to conceive peripheries as laggard and non-innovative. After reconstructing discussions of the periphery in the context of the geography of firm-level innovation, we argue that normative connotations should be stripped away, and that 'periphery' and 'cente...
A growing number of researchers, using high-level data or theoretical reasoning, suggest that there is no necessary connection between local firm-level innovation and local development. There are two connected strands to this argument: first, many analysts suggest that regional innovation should be understood as a social and institutional process,...
In March 2020, many workers were suddenly forced to work from home. This brought into stark relief the fact that urban economic activity is no longer attached to specific workplaces. This detachment has been analysed in research on organisations and workers, but has not yet been incorporated into concepts used to document and plan the economic geog...
Since Jensen et al.’s (2007) seminal paper conceptualizing innovation modes, many empirical studies have demonstrated the validity of the concept. There have recently been two developments that may help clarify our understanding of innovation modes. First, innovation modes are being sub-divided between those internal and those external to the firm....
To be cited as: Glückler, Johannes, Shearmur, Richard and Martinus, Kirsten (2022): From Liability to Opportunity: Reconceptualizing the Role of Periphery in Innovation. SPACES online, Vol.17, Issue 2022-01. Toronto and Heidelberg: www.spacesonline.com
Abstract: The concept of periphery has remained implicit and ambiguous in economic geography, of...
Baumgartinger-Seiringer, S., D.Doloreux, R.Shearmur, M.Trippl, 2021, When history does not matter? The rise of Quebec’s wine industry, PEGIS working paper 2021/5 - http://www-sre.wu.ac.at/sre-disc/geo-disc-2021_05.pdf
This article contributes to the debate on new regional path development, proposing an analytical framework that accounts for new industries arising almost ex nihilo in places with weakly developed preconditions. The paper explores how seemingly adverse initial conditions can be translated into a new development path over time and casts light on the...
fr Figurant comme un élément important des politiques de développement économique, les grappes régionales ont été souvent présentées, à tort ou à raison, comme étant l'environnement le mieux adapté pour stimuler l'innovation et la compétitivité des entreprises et des régions. L'objectif de cet article est d'étudier le phénomène des grappes industri...
Introduction
In mid-March 2020, Canadian society pivoted from businessas-normal to lockdown and social distancing. By the end of March, 39 percent of Canada's workforce was working from home (Deng et al, 2020), leading some to declare that ‘this might just be the end of the office as we knew it’ (Vasel, 2020). Indeed, the percentage mentioned in De...
The purpose of this chapter is to contribute to the discourse on changing workplaces in the knowledge economy, by focusing specifically on the rise of mobile and multi-locational knowledge work (workplace mobility). Drawing from the experiences of 25 knowledge workers based in Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo, Ontario in Canada (also known as Sili...
The working paper describes the results of a survey of 1325 Montrealers that was conducted in June and July 2020, investigating the variety of locations from which they worked pre- and during-COVID. On the basis of the survey and of a review of the literature describing pre-COVID trends, a scenario is developed describing a plausible future for dow...
The Canadian wine industry is a small but growing sector of the economy rooted in non-metropolitan areas. Dependent upon local natural resources and climatic conditions and coupled with changes in consumers’ preferences, wineries are pressured to adopt and develop more ecological practices and production processes. It has thus become increasingly i...
It is difficult to define, let alone locate, knowledge. Research in regional studies suggests that cities are the focus of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), attract knowledge workers, and concentrate research and development (R&D) and universities: the implication is that knowledge is created in and diffused from urban centres. We sugge...
After providing some theoretical background on employment growth and on the concept of accessibility, this study measures the impact of transport infrastructure on local employment growth in Canada between 1971 and 2000, looking at the three decades separately.
We find that accessibility usually results from a bundle of transport infrastructure, a...
Highlights
- The editorial introduces the special issue on “innovation in peripheries and borderlands”.
- Innovation takes place also outside of cities.
- Peripherality can be a positive advantage to certain types of innovation.
In this chapter I examine the belief that local innovation leads to local employment and income growth. Indeed, the vast majority of research on the connection between entrepreneurial innovation and regions has focused on understanding how different geographic contexts and locations are more or less conducive to firm-level innovation. This has rece...
This paper explores the geography of collaborations and interactions that are linked to DUI (Doing, Using, and Interacting) and STI (Scientific and Technologically based Innovation) innovation modes in the wine industry: that is, the geography of interaction modes. DUI and STI interaction modes are analysed by exploring their association with innov...
This short article, published both in English and French, provides a brief overview of urban technology, arguing that the term 'technology' is increasingly defined very narrowly as digital and communication technology. This serves the purpose of a growing 'Innovation Machine' - i.e. a constellation of actors who stand to gain by introducing these t...
Whilst workplace mobility (i.e., working from a variety of locations) has become an area of study in its own right, and has increasingly gained media attention, little is known about how prevalent or novel it is. In this paper we use Census place of work data to obtain insights into the prevalence and growth of this phenomenon in Canada's ten large...
In this paper we conceptualise the growing challenge faced by economic geographers and urban planners as they explore where economic activity actually occurs – where it is located – within cities. We suggest that economic activity relates to urban space by way of trajectories (punctuated by specific places) rather than by way of location. Such an a...
Abstract: Whilst workplace mobility (i.e. working from a variety of locations) has become an area of study in its own right, and has increasingly gained media attention, little is know about how prevalent or novel it is. In this paper we use census place-of-work data to obtain insights into the prevalence and growth of this phenomenon in Canada's t...
Since 2010, the term “smart city” has become a buzzword, used in a vague way to denote the increasing integration of information technology into city management processes and to describe the social and community processes they enable. The adjective “smart” is, however, only applied to cities: by implication non‐cities (i.e., rural and peripheral re...
En Octobre 2019 la ville de Montréal tient une consultation publique à propos de son projet de réglement d'urbanisme pour une ville inclusive. Ce mémoire a été préparé dans le cadre de cette consultation, et présente une analyse et des commentaires au sujet du réglement proposé.
In October 2019 the City of Montreal is holding public hearings on it...
Dans ce chapitre, nous avançons que le secteur public – les municipalités en l’occurrence – est tout aussi innovateur que les entreprises privées, mais que l’innovation qu’on y observe est propulsée par des motivations différentes et doit être évaluée de manière différente, se rapprochant plus de l’innovation sociale. Or, pour comprendre les différ...
It is generally accepted that cities and other forms of geographic agglomerations are conducive to innovation because their density and variety of firms, sectors and individuals create a diverse environment. However, a growing body of work shows that innovation also occurs in peripheral regions and small towns. Furthermore, work on rural social net...
In this brief paper I outline some of Mario Polèse’s work in regional economics and local development that has marked my career and which has inspired much of my own research -, first as his student, then as his colleague. Notwithstanding the importance of his work, I try to point out the other – probably more important – ways in which Mario Polèse...
This brief discussion paper reviews Canada's Ocean Supercluster strategy, launched by the Canadian Federal government in early 2018. It explains what Canada's Ocean Supercluster strategy is, why it matters for innovation and economic development, and discusses the extent to which the strategy is likely to support and strengthen the knowledge-based...
This paper analyses the effect of internal R&D and of external sources of information on the innovation performance of Knowledge intensive business services (KIBS). The analysis is based on an establishment-level survey covering the period of 2011–2014 in Canada (Quebec). In order to determine the influence of different external information sources...
This paper examines how KIBS establishments combine innovation and exports, and which factors are associated with these combinations. In particular, we hypothesize that KIBS establishments which both export and innovate will be over-represented in metropolitan regions, and under-represented in peripheral regions. Our analysis draws upon a sample of...
Dans ce court texte j'avance-à l'instar de Bonneuil & Fressoz-que l'anthropocène est politique. Toutefois, dans un monde où la démocratie, la liberté individuelle, la croissance économique, le respect de la diversité et l'acceptation de systèmes de valeur multiples sont, dans l'ensemble, valorisés comment est-il possible d'imposer un système de val...
In this short essay I argue-following Bonneuil & Fressoz-that the Anthropocene is political. However, in a world in which democracy, personal freedom, economic growth, respect for diversity and acceptance of alternative value systems are by and large accepted, how is it possible to impose a system of values that will put the planet, future generati...
This short texts asks whether urban resistance is possible given the vast variety of things to resist and their malleability.
Canada’s population is spread out over vast spaces. Geography is everywhere, creating unique challenges for regional economic development. Like all industrialised nations, Canada is affected by current mega-trends: the rise of the knowledge-based economy, aging populations; globalization; and the introduction of new information technologies (IT for...
Placemaking has recently become fashionable - stepping out of the urban theorists' conceptual toolbox into the realms of consultancy, pop-up urbanism and temporary re-use of space. What is it, and why does it now appear to be more necessary than in the past?
The role of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) in innovation processes is often understood as that of knowledge intermediaries. Yet KIBS are innovators, and use external services: so what is their nature (or identity) and can it be distinguished from the roles they play? We conceptualize how KIBS can be understood simultaneously as innova...
A growing number of workers, particularly in the knowledge and service sectors, can perform their work at multiple locations, and it is decreasingly realistic to assume, as researchers and planners have traditionally done, that employment in cities occurs in fixed locations. This suggests that census data or establishment registries do not fully ca...
This study explores variety in knowledge sourcing and its impact on the degree of novelty in KIBS innovation. The data analysed are part of the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) 2013, Spain's contribution to the European-wide Community Innovation Survey (CIS). Some evidence is found of a positive relationship between variety of market...
Le présent ouvrage montre la diversité qui caractérise Montréal,
diversité qui à travers les années s’est transposée dans la morphologie
même des quartiers, si bien que certaines collectivités y ont
développé une identité distincte, assumée par leurs résidents et
reconnue socialement et institutionnellement. Des formes spécifiques
de leadership et...
Knowledge‐intensive business services (KIBS) have emerged as a key sector in the knowledge economy, both as conveyors of expertise and as vectors of information exchange playing an important – but sometimes underappreciated – role in innovation dynamics. They can contribute to the economy directly by exporting, and indirectly by assisting other eco...
The objective of this article is to analyze the innovation behaviors of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (Kibs) in France and Canada (Quebec) and to describe the geographic variation of innovation strategies across regions. The empirical results reveal similarities in strategies on both sides of the Atlantic, but also an important difference:...
In this AAG (Association of American Geographers) presentation I argue that innovation and innovators are not attached to particular places. Innovation and creativity draw upon differences between places, and on the different possibilities places can offer - such as more quiet and isolation in rural areas, and more buzz and interaction in urban one...
Public-sector innovation and entrepreneurship usually refer to policies undertaken by public administrations or driven by urban regimes in view of furthering economic development. Some researchers study these processes from a management perspective; others critique them as vehicles of neoliberalization. However, scant attention has been paid to eve...
Geographic research on firm-level innovation is generally premised on the idea of open innovation, suggesting that innovation occurs more readily in urban settings or clusters, which generate local buzz and allow access to external actors. However, a growing body of evidence demonstrates that firms also introduce first-to-market innovations in remo...