Knowledge Society and Built Spaces in Ecuador and the Italian Veneto: State-of-Art

Abstract

Following the international agreements established at the World Summit on the Information Society, organized by the UN and the Digital Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean, Ecuador, and the Italian Veneto invest resources destined to transform the production matrix towards knowledge. Among the strategies they use are training human talent and constructing spaces that promote innovation and knowledge production. Thus, clusters are formed in different areas, urban districts are formed, or cities based on knowledge, as in the Ecuadorian case. Spaces that change and impact the usual functioning of the city. This article aims to build a state-of-the-art advanced knowledge society focused on the built spaces of Ecuador and Veneto. For this, three case studies are selected: the Yachay Knowledge City, considered an emblematic project, Loja as a canton in which the change in the production matrix induced by the National Development Plan is reviewed; and Verona as a representative case of the Italian Veneto, which houses knowledge clusters and an interpret part of the European corridor. A mixed methodology supported by a qualitative documentation review from the corresponding governments and scientific articles was used. In addition, a bibliometric review is made using 353 articles obtained from the Scopus database. Advances are checked against your regional standards. Built spaces are found, although not always in accordance with the projected results. The advances in both cases are below the regional, Latin, and European average, respectively.