Knowledge and Digital Technology

This open access book explores the multifaceted interplay of technology, knowledge, and place. While digital technology is increasingly influencing our way of knowing, conversely it is itself the consequence of human creativity and local social interaction. Part I analyzes how digital technologies transform markets through artificial intelligence and decentralized blockchain models. Its contributions discuss novel governance mechanisms, including the responsible use and analysis of big data. Part II illustrates various ways in which technology supports humanity, be it algorithms supporting complex decision-making processes or the use of robotics in care services. The chapters highlight that technology's efficiency and potential rely on social norms and human capital. Finally, Part III shows that digitization is generating vibrant entrepreneurship, reflected in geographically clustered urban scale-up economies, as well as opening up new ways for people to connect with one another, organize civic engagement and enable new forms of labor. The book offers theoretical reflections as well as empirical cases from the United States, Canada, Japan, South Africa, and Europe. This volume provides a valuable read for scholars, students and professionals in the fields of knowledge creation, technology and governance.

Johannes Glückler is Professor of Economic Geography at LMU Munich, Germany, and was a professor of economic and social geography at Heidelberg University between 2008 and 2023. In his research he follows a relational perspective and builds on theories of social networks, institutions, and governance in the study of the geography of knowledge and regional development. He is a founding board member of the German Society for Social Network Research DGNet and co-founder of the M.Sc. Governance of Risks and Resources at the Heidelberg Center for Latin America in Santiago de Chile.

Robert Panitz is a Junior Professor in Technology and Innovation Management at the University of Koblenz, Germany. He also is a guest lecturer at the Heidelberg Center for Latin America in Chile. His research focuses on the impact of technological change on regional development and the role of social networks in economic and social life. Further, he is interested in organizationaland management processes that support innovation and technology development in firms. He is a founding member of the German Association for Network Research.