In this paper, the comparative responses of the USA and Japan to the rise of the new high-technology industries are examined. The United States pattern mainly revolves around the rise of high-technology districts like Silicon Valley and Route 128 which comprise dense networks of small entrepreneurial firms and other related institutions.
Capitalism is undergoing an epochal transformation from a mas-production system where the principal source of value was physical labour to a new era of innovation-mediated production where the principal component of value creation, productivity and economic growth is knowledge and intellectual capabilities.
This is the first in a series of articles in which The Globe and Mail visits an iconic Toronto neighbourhood or event with Richard Florida.
