Events as a means to foster knowledge-driven urban development: Experience from the new district development in Nanjing

Abstract

Events can bring important impetus to urban development. In addition to hardware investments, such as infrastructure, events also have important potential in the development of knowledge cities. Nanjing is a typical city where China’s knowledge industry is rapidly growing. Since the end of the last century, Nanjing has been promoting new district development on the city’s periphery and has hosted a series of events, including the 10th National Games in 2005 and the 2nd Youth Olympic Games in 2014. In this process, the city government also hopes to explore the potential of the knowledge economy and is committed to providing a new direction for urban development.

This work reviews the history of Nanjing’s knowledge city development from two different dimensions (land development and knowledge development) and summarises the related achievements and lessons in different periods. The authors aim to identify the diverse effects of events in urban social and economic development based on the analysis of the differences in governance structure between land development and knowledge development. This work contributes to the literature on events and provides insights into the potential uses of events as a mechanism for knowledge-driven urban development.

Key words： New district development; Knowledge city; Events; Urban transformation

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