The Next Frontier: Collaboration in the New Economy

Abstract

In all of the case-study regions we’ve examined up to this point, we have stressed the role and evolution of epistemic communities, often against the backdrop of significant economic restructuring, growing demograph- ic diversity, and a nationwide worsening of inequality. We’ve explored the differences between communities that are driven by planning, steered by elites, or wracked by conflict. We have suggested that although pro- cesses of collaboration and knowledge-sharing across diverse constituen- cies do not guarantee success, they may help create norms and conditions that make above-average growth and improved social equity more likely to be achieved, even in the midst of a rapidly changing economy.