Spatialising knowledge: placing the knowledge community of Motor Sport Valley

Within the contemporary world of 'the knowledge economy', understanding the spatial organisation of knowledge production has become a key issue. Drawi ng on recent emphases in economic geography on the cultural construction an d social embeddedness of economic success, this paper outlines an attempt t o understand one form of spatial organisation of knowledge - the agglomerat ion or cluster - using the analytical concept of 'the knowledge community'. Using the example of Motor Sport Valley, the paper provides an empirical a nd methodological example of how one might place a knowledge community. The British motor sport industry dominates its world of production with a regi onal agglomeration, Motor Sport Valley, centred on Oxfordshire and stretchi ng into East Anglia and down into Surrey. The paper provides empirical demo nstration of the processes of knowledge generation and dissemination consti tuting the space (and knowledge community) of Motor Sport Valley. The paper recognises also the need to contextualise the 'microfoundations' of knowle dge communities within a greater political economic system. (C) 2000 Publis hed by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.