With this issue, the Journal of Knowledge Management begins a series of annual Special Issues devoted to Knowledge-Based Development (KBD), this is the third to be published on the topic and the SI is now annual from 2006. In the current issue, an attempt has been made to gain in consistency along a number of lines that seem to be shaping this emerging field: interdisciplinarity, conceptual and methodological variety, empirical evidence, systems approach and, particularly, strategic perspective. Interdisciplinarity is key to sustaining Knowledge-based Development as an emerging field by contributing to attract the relevant R&D talent. On one hand, Growth Theory had been a well established area of Economics even before KM itself emerged as a radically new approach to managing organizational value during the 1980s and 1990s. Other disciplines such as Sociology and Anthropology had a major stake in Social and Economic Development. On the other hand, Urban Studies and Urban Planning were engaged with cities as development units long before the distinctive opportunities for knowledge-based urban development became evident. Other disciplines as well, such as Geography and Demographics are fundamental to conceptualizing Knowledge Cities. Since no single discipline can be capable of dealing adequately on its own with the complex realities of the knowledge societies, transdisciplinarity becomes a precondition to significant learning. Our aim is that specialists from these fields join forces with the KM community in the collective building of KBD as a discipline.