Urban centres are increasingly an important focal point for industrial innovation and economic development. Globalization, a recognition of the importance of innovation to economic prosperity, the interdependence between knowledge generation, learning, and proximity, and not least, the fragmentation of the innovation process itself, have all helped give rise to new understandings of how urban regions interact with, and support, knowledge-intensive economies. The purpose of this course is to survey the literature on these issues and explore their implications for: the role of strategic management in planning and directing the economic development of city-regions; the role of economic governance in city-regions; and, the relationships that urban centres have with upper-levels of government.