High-Tech Fantasies

High-Tech Fantasies goes beyond the normal "policy evaluation" to examine the underlying assumptions which science parks embody about science and society and their relation to space and geographical uneven development. It is argued that science parks are founded on a notion of scientific production and industrial innovation which is not only technically inappropriate but also intrinsically socially divisive. Moreover, the spatial form and symbolic spatial content of science parks - near to academe, far from physical production and with specific design characteristics - further increases their tendency to promote (and depend upon) social polarisation. This polarisation takes a precise geographical form, exemplified in the clustering of "high-tech" in the semi-rural regions of the south and east of England. The book focuses on the tight and mutual relation between the forms of scientific production, social structures and geographical inequality, dismantling the popular concept of science parks to present an alternative conceptualisation from which the real implications of science-park developments can be drawn. This alternative is used to analyse both the room for manoeuvre available to those currently involved in developing science parks and the ultimate constraints imposed by their assumptions. Concerned with issues ranging from the nature of industrial innovation to the geography of a part of yuppiedom, High-Tech Fantasies will be of interest to both technologists and social scientists.