A city’s ability to generate value and meaning has a relationship with its ability to promote innovation and better position itself within the global economy.

Globalisation has given companies access to space, capital and people from all over the world which has disrupted conventional understanding of the interaction between companies and the cities which they inhabit.

The economic map of today is dictated by clusters - a place with an unusually high competitive advantage in a specific field. A city in itself is a form of cluster although more specifically a cluster is a concentration of businesses or activities in the same industry, in the same area, which drive innovation and promote economic growth - notable examples include the likes of Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Hollywood.

However, there is a paradox of place that exists within the context of the global economy which is that a cluster’s competitive advantage lies within its connection to very local resources – knowledge, people and the exchanges that connect them – yet at the same time clusters have the ability to create a loss of sense of place or ‘placelessness’. These social exchanges and their relationship to the economy are what gives a place value and meaning and enables a city to drive innovation and forward-thinking.

Cities prioritise the recreation of capital by the separation of social exchanges from economic activities through lack of understanding of the relationship between place and innovation. A more progressive sense of place offers us the possibility to re-think the processes of globalisation and better position cities within the global economy.