Area zyxwvutsrqp (2000) 32.2, 179-1 88 Knowledge-complexes and the locus of technological change: the biotechnology sector in Oxfordshire Helen Lawton Smith, David Mihell and David Kingham Centre for Local Economic Development, Coventry Business School, Coventry University, BSXOG1 @coventry.ac.uk Revised manuscript received 4 October 1999. Summary The case of the biotechnology industry in Oxfordshire is used to examine localism as a means o f underpinning the technological trajectory o f an industry (Storper 1992). Oxfordshire has a rapidly developing cluster of biotechnology firms. Its position as a focal point o f technological change derives from the combination of world-class scientific research in its research institutions and its firms, a scientific labour market and an emerging infrastructure, including a soft infrastructure: networks, culture and innovation centres, which together are shaping this particular development path. zyxw Introduction The biotech industry is perhaps the most interesting zyxwvu of the high-tech sectors which form the fifth Kondra- tiev wave. This is not just because of its contribution to technological advance in a raft of other industries but because of the rare causal relationship in the UK between public investment in the science base and a world class industry. The key characteristics of the biotechnology industry are its intimate and continu- ing relationship with university research; much of it is based on selling technological futures; its activities are highly internationalized and interactive- particularly with global pharmaceutical companies (Faulkner and Senker 1995); and its firms are spa- tially clustered. Indeed the development of clusters of biotech firms is now UK government policy. The theme of this paper is the relationship between the geography of the biotechnology indus- try and its technological trajectory. It draws on recent analyses of clusters of knowledge-based or high-tech firms which have their analytical origins in Marshall’s industrial districts. Variants include ’innovative milieu’ (the GREMl school), ‘new industrial spaces’ (Scott 1988), ’Italiante Marshallian industrial districts’ (Markusen 1996) and ’regional worlds of learning’ (Storper 1993). However, only Storper (1992, 89) has pointed out that ’Marshall did not distinguish between localism as a means of reducing production costs under conditions of uncertainty and localism as an underpinning of the technological trajectory of an industry’. Storper’s basic point is that localism in the form of clustering of firms contributes to technologi- cal change. This paper addresses the question of why local clusters emerge in a sector, how locality affects these firms and how firms affect the locality using the case study of the rapidly growing biotechnology industry in Oxfordshire. Technological change and clustering Technological change has been defined as, ‘an increase in the accumulated body of technical knowledge and/or the number of firms or individuals who process and use this knowledge’ (Goddard, Thwaites and Gibbs 1986). Amin and Thrift (1992) have argued that technological change occurs at the intersection of globa/local accumulations of know- how and expertise in advantageous locations. These are special types of new industrial spaces which have pioneered the development of new industries and ISSN 0004-0894 zyxwvutsr 0 Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) 2000