Abstract
Urban innovation ecosystems are set to play a prominent role in the internationalization and governance of big cities. By harboring solid scientific and technological assets and attracting both human and financial capital, they are best suited to become the pivotal actors of effective multi-stakeholder partnerships between the scientific community, public institutions, the private sector and civil society. In 2018, Barcelona’s knowledge and innovation ecosystem came together to launch a comprehensive diplomatic strategy to put the city’s science and technology at the forefront of global challenges. This paper presents the case study of Barcelona and discuss the opportunities for city-led science diplomacy as a formal, institutionalized practice aimed to reinforcing the insertion of local interests in the international scene while favouring the open interaction between the internal stakeholders involved.
Highlights
Global cities have gained prominence in academic literature on global governance
An increasing number of cities are defining their strategies for internationalization and defining mechanisms that ensure an integral approach to foreign action (Curtis and Acuto, 2018), effective coordination among the different levels of government operating in international affairs (Kuznetsov, 2015), and adequate organization of its various stakeholders (Cerda-Bertomeu and Sarabia-Sanchez, 2016), as global perspectives and policies from different regions have become increasingly available to local arenas (Tavares, 2016; Nijman, 2016)
An innovation ecosystem does not emerge as an isolated central-government decision: entrepreneurs and researchers move to cities where universities, venture capital and human capital are found
Summary
Global cities have gained prominence in academic literature on global governance. Their impact is visible in areas such as climate action (Bulkeley and Castán-Broto, 2013; Barber, 2017), migration (Bauder, 2016), human rights (Grigolo, 2019), industrial policy (Dijkstra et al, 2019) or global health. This new governance models inspire the Ecosystem Board of Barcelona Science and Technology Diplomacy Hub (SciTech DiploHub), which integrates both public and private actors.
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