Dubaization of Istanbul: insights from the knowledge-based urban development journey of an emerging local economy

Knowledge-based urban development (KBUD) has become a popular pursuit for cities, especially from the developing countries, to fast track the catching up process with their counterparts in developed nations. Nevertheless, for these cities the KBUD progress is daunting and full of challenges. The authors aim to shed light on the major KBUD challenges of emerging local economies by undertaking an in-depth empirical investigation in one such city. They scrutinize the prospects and constraints of Istanbul in her KBUD journey through comparative performance and policy context analyses. The findings reveal invaluable insights, not only for Istanbul to reshape the policy context and align development with contemporary KBUD better, but also for other emerging local economies to learn from these experiences. <br> <b>Keywords:</b> knowledge-based urban development, knowledge city, knowledge economy, emerging local economy, Istanbul