Ngai-Ling Sum Politics and International Relations Department &

1. A Cultural Political Economy of Knowledge Brands: Upgrading ‘Clusters’ and Facilitating ‘Regional Innovation System’ Ngai-Ling Sum Politics and International Relations Department & Cultural Political Economy Research Centre Lancaster University

2. Outline • Towards a Cultural Political Economy • Three Overlapping Stages in the Development of Knowledge Brands • Some Current Knowledge Brands and their Recontextualization • The Case of the Pearl River Delta: Upgrading ‘Clusters’ and Facilitating ‘Regional Innovation System’ • Concluding Remarks

3. I. Towards a Cultural Political Economy (CPE) Taking the ‘cultural turn’ seriously in the study of socio-economic relations Exploring the interface between the discursive and extra-discursive, including the semiotic and material bases of power (Sum 2004, Jessop 2004, Sum and Jessop 2010)

4. Some ‘semioses’ are more powerful than others Nodal knowledge gets sedimented as transnational knowledge brands (Sum 2004; 2009) Introduce the idea of knowledge brand to innovation studies Illustration with the Harvard-Porterian brand of ‘competitiveness/cluster’ Three overlapping stages in the development of knowledge brand

5. 2. Three Overlapping Stages in Development of Knowledge Brands: ‘Cultures of Competitiveness’

6. A knowledge brand (is a form of commodified knowledge that) operates as a resonant hegemonic meaning-making device advanced in various ways by ‘world-class’ guru-academic-consultants who claim unique knowledge of a relevant strategic or policy field and pragmatically translate this into transnational policy symbols, recipes and tool kits that address social tensions, contradictions, and dilemmas and also appeal to pride, threats, and anxieties about socio-economic restructuring and changes

7. Porter’s concepts of competitiveness and clusters are simple and flexible • These allow diverse interpretations, frequent renewal and continuous circulation in the guru-policy-consultancy-think tank circuit • Especially in a conjuncture marked by the demand for fast policy and the fear of economic restructuring

8. Table 2 Institutions and Discourses Related to Competitiveness at Different Scales

9. 3. Current Knowledge Brands and their Recontextualization • Apart from the Harvard-Porterian brand, there are other complementary and competing ‘knowledge brands’ in current policy market(e.g., national/regional innovation system, technological capabilities, etc.)

11. 4. The Pearl River Delta Case (PRD) • The hybridization of brands in a recent initiative proposed by Guangdong Provincial Government in China • The Outline of the Plan for the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta (2008-2020) • Central/provincial governments, academic- consultants, policymakers, commissions selectively recontextualized and hybridized these brands in response to the crisis

12. The Outline of the Plan for the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta (2008-2020) The National Development and Reform Commission December 2008

13. The Outline recontextualizes and hybridizes various knowledge brands • A mix of Porter, Florida, Lundvall, Lall and Sen (with energy and green twists) • Many entry-points, focuses on the • constructing regional economic identity; and • framing the organization of regional space in ‘high-end competitiveness’ terms

14. Constructing regional identity • Regional identity is framed in ‘leapfrogging’, ‘scientific’, ‘innovative’ and ‘creative’ terms • ‘… translation of innovative findings, and realize leapfrogging development of industrial technologies’ (2008: 29) • ‘ … (cultivation) of a group of innovative enterprises with strong innovatingcapabilities’ (2008: 32) • ‘… transformation from “Made in Guangdong” to “Created by Guangdong” (2008: 31)

15. Framing the organization of regional space in ‘high-end competitiveness’ terms • ‘The region will shape a mainstay of industry clusters dually supported by modern service industries and advanced manufacturing industries’ (2008: 15) • ‘… an open regional innovation system in which enterprises play the leading roles, and which is guided by the market and combines industries, universities, and research academies, established the first innovation region of the country, develop into an important innovation hub and a major base for translation of research findings of Asian-Pacific region, and advance its international competitiveness in an all-round way’ (2008: 29)

16. ‘…. the region will innovate its mechanisms for international and regional cooperation …. and improve its open economic system featured by domestic and overseas interaction, mutual benefits and win-win results, and safety and efficiency.’ (2008: 11) • ‘The region will expedite the construction of the construction of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong passenger railway, start at an early date the construction of certain infrastructures, such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge ….’ (2008: 109)

17. From a neo-Foucauldian viewpoint, this Outline can be seen as a technology of control • It instils a structuring language that legitimizes the competitiveness-innovation integration order via two kinds of governmental power:

20. Apart from the Outline, making a competitiveness-innovation-integration order also involves • Assembling implementation plans, directives, letters of intent, coordination ministries & committees, task forces, infrastructural projects, introduction/implementation forums, press releases, etc. • This articulated assemblage of discourses, technologies and practices helps to constitute and naturalize a kind of innovation governmentality

21. Governing common sense via technology of coherence and agency does not mean it is not challenged and negotiated by embedded social forces across different sites and scales • Issues include: who is being displaced and/or otherized by upgrading ‘clusters’ and facilitating ‘regional innovation system’ • Regional innovation-integration limits and struggles

22. The innovation imperative demands greater regional interactions • Top-down call for the expedition of the construction of the high-speed rail link in the PRD • Some controversial issues • Displacing residence of a village and community life • The route and the choice of station affect property prices in the area – who gain and who loose?

23. 5. Some Concluding Remarks • CPE explores interface of discursive and the extra-discursive dimensions, hence semiotic and material bases of power • Some semiotic forms and discourses are more powerful. I have looked at knowledge brands (and not just knowledge) • Introduce idea of knowledge brand in innovation studies • Examine hybridization and sedimentation of these knowledge brands in mapping spaces as innovative • Use ‘Outline’ of the PRD to examine recontextualization and hybridization of various brands (e.g., Porter, Florida, Lundvall, OECD, etc.) as the region upgrades

24. The making of this competitiveness-innovation-integration order is partly constituted through deployment of governmental power of steering and agency (in a neo-Foucauldian sense) • This process is • discursively and structurally selective and, therefore, far from neutral (e.g., they systematically benefit some social forces more than others) • more than an economic one but involves a mix of micro-power of knowledge recontextualization and the macro-power of struggles, negotiation and the contestation

25. The End Thank You! Cultural Political Economy Research Centre Lancaster University http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/cperc