Towards a global knowledge‐based development agenda

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to introduce the 2008 annual special issue on knowledge‐based development (KBD), from the perspective of the construction of an R&D agenda relevant to the international community of knowledge‐based development (KBD) practitioners and researchers. Design/methodology/approach – The papers in the special issue are introduced and discussed. Findings – A number of preliminary exercises around the world show a trend towards building a common KBD research and innovation agenda able to diversify into specialized topics such as urbanism, economics and geography, while maintaining a distinctive set of core issues. Originality/value – This paper introduces a volume that may contribute to raise new questions and stimulate further research into the potential of knowledge as a leverage to the social and economic development of cities, regions and countries.