Research Regions: Constructing High Technology Complexes

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Dr. Kargon, a historian of science, Dr. Schoenberger, a geographer, and Dr. Leslie, a historian of technology, are collaborating in a study of the development of science- technology-industry regional complexes or growth centers. They are developing detailed pictures of two prototypes--"Silicon Valley" in the Santa Clara Valley of California and Route 128 around Boston--and then examining the origins and development of three attempts to follow their example. These three case studies will be the Princeton New Jersey corridor, the New York Capital region surrounding Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy New York, and the Boulder-Denver corridor of Colorado. By examining the prototypes and then three attempts to copy them, these investigators how to be able to fill gaps in our understanding of the dynamics of these growth centers and their evolution, and to illuminate the more general problem of the construction of agglomeration economies as they are influenced by the scientific-technical frontier, the social and industrial histories of the specific locale, and the structure of the industry. These studies should also address significant issues concerning the science-technology relationship and governmental- industrial-academic interactions in the critically important post-World War II period, 1945 to the present.