A Handbook Of Industrial Districts

‘Anyone interested in the study of industrial districts will find something of value in this book.’
– Joshua Hall, The Review of Regional Studies

‘This impressive work, divided into four parts and composed of no fewer than 53 contributions, proposes to look back at and reflect on the writings of Giacomo Becattini and his Florentine school, with the objective of assessing his work in the light of the debate it has fuelled.’
– Giulia Bianchi, History of Economic Ideas

‘By providing a comprehensive story of industrial districts, the authors have provided a text that meets the needs of their intended audience. Given the diversity of writing, the academic, planner, policy maker, enterprise manager, and entrepreneur can all use this book as a reference to help them understand best practice principles and to learn from a diverse range of case studies and empirical evidence. The book would add value to postgraduate reading lists, particularly as many of the case studies could be easily developed into challenging and purposeful assessments.’
– Simon Stephens, Growth and Change

‘This book offers an excellent contribution and should be procured by every library with interest in this field. As the book includes very valuable conceptual, critical and forward looking contributions, it will be a very valuable source for academics, students and policy-makers with an interest in agglomeration economics at large.’
– Sören Eriksson, Papers in Regional Science

‘A Handbook of Industrial Districts is a very well-organized and structured collection of scientific works on the theory of industrial districts.’
– Roberta Capello, Regional Studies

In this comprehensive original reference work, the editors have brought together an unrivalled group of distinguished scholars and practitioners to comment on the historical and contemporary role of industrial districts (IDs).

This Handbook is uniquely positioned to shed light on the role of global and local forces and how they increasingly interact to shape the welfare of societies and the economic performance of firms and places. It illustrates that IDs are a clear expression of local societies finding their ‘place’ in the national and international division of labour, and through the constitution and elaboration of productive specialisations congenial to the attitudes and the preferences of their people. Ultimately, the Handbook represents the main strands of a wide-ranging, decades-long debate on the nature of IDs: what they represented in the past, the changes they are currently undergoing, and the future challenges and opportunities they will face in an increasingly global economy.

Including conceptual, critical and forward-looking contributions, as well as case studies from Asia, Latin America, Europe and the US, this Handbook will prove an invaluable resource for academics, students and policymakers focusing on industrial districts, local production systems and innovation. It will also appeal to those interested in the local drivers of competitiveness and related public policies.

Contents:

Critical Nodes and Contemporary Reflections on Industrial Districts: An Introduction
Giacomo Becattini, Marco Bellandi and Lisa De Propris

PART I: ORIGIN AND THEORIES OF INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS

SECTION 1. EARLY INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS
Introduction by Alberto Guenzi

1. The Genesis of a Hybrid: Early Industrial Districts between Craft Culture and Factory Training
Carlo Marco Belfanti

2. Flexibility and Adaptation in the Formation of Three Italian Industrial Districts
Corine Maitte

3. Apprenticeship and Technical Schools in the Formation of Industrial Districts
Elisabetta Merlo

4. The Emergence and Development of Industrial Districts in Industrialising England, 1750–1914
Andrew Popp and John F. Wilson

5. Industrial Districts and Large Firms: The Stubborn Persistence of a ‘Weak’ Productive Model
Andrea Colli

SECTION 2. FROM THE ENGLISH ROOTS TO THE ITALIAN REVIVAL
Introduction by Tiziano Raffaelli

6. Forerunners of Marshall on the Industrial Districts
Peter Groenewegen

7. Industrial Districts in Marshall’s Economics
Brian J. Loasby

8. External and Internal Economies
Neil Hart

9. The Italian Revival of Industrial Districts and the Foundations of Political Economy
Renzo Bianchi

10. The Italian Revival of Industrial Districts and the Foundations of Industrial Policy
Anna Natali and Margherita Russo

SECTION 3. A MEETING GROUND FOR THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Introduction by Carlo Trigilia

11. The Marshallian Industrial Districts and Current Trends in Economic Theory
Marco Dardi

12. The Economics of Context, Location and Trade: Another Great Transformation?
Michael Storper

13. Flow-fund Model, Decomposability of the Production Process and the Structure of an Industrial District
Piero Tani

14. Clusters and Industrial Districts: Common Roots, Different Perspectives
Michael Porter and Christian Ketels

PART II: THE NATURE OF INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS

SECTION 4. SOCIO-CULTURAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS
Introduction by Paolo Giovannini

15. The Industrial District as a Local Evolutionary Phenomenon
Maurizio Mistri

16. Semi-automatic and Deliberate Actions in the Evolution of Industrial Districts
Gabi Dei Ottati

17. The Governance of Industrial Districts
Arnaldo Bagnasco

18. The New Argonauts, Global Search and Local Institution Building
AnnaLee Saxenian and Charles Sabel

19. Web of Rules in Industrial Districts’ Labour Markets
Jean Saglio

SECTION 5. KNOWLEDGE, LEARNING AND CREATIVITY
Introduction by Luciana Lazzeretti

20. Conceptualizing the Dynamics of Industrial Districts
Michael J. Piore

21. Innovation Processes and Industrial Districts
Paul L. Robertson, David Jacobson and Richard N. Langlois

22. The Creative Capacity of Culture and the New Creative Milieu
Luciana Lazzeretti

23. Technology Clusters, Industrial Districts and Regional Innovation Systems
Philip Cooke

24. Culture as a Productive Resource, International Networks and Local Development
Olivier Crevoisier and Leïla Kebir

PART III: EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATIONS ON INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS

SECTION 6. EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
Introduction by Fabio Sforzi

25. The Empirical Evidence of Industrial Districts in Italy
Fabio Sforzi

26. The Empirical Evidence of Industrial Districts in Spain
Rafael Boix

27. The Empirical Evidence of Industrial Districts in Great Britain
Lisa De Propris

28. Measuring the District Effect
Guido de Blasio, Massimo Omiccioli and Luigi Federico Signorini

29. Measuring the Internationalisation of Industrial Districts
Stefano Menghinello

SECTION 7. THE ITALIAN EXPERIENCES
Introduction by Michael Dunford

30. Sectors of Excellence in the Italian Industrial Districts
Marco Fortis and Monica Carminati

31. Regional Peculiarities in Italian Industrial Districts
Francesco Musotti

32. Medium-sized Firms, Groups and Industrial Districts: An Italian Perspective
Fulvio Coltorti

33. Knowledge Dynamics in the Evolution of Italian Industrial Districts
Fiorenzo Belussi

34. Bank’s Localism and Industrial Districts
Pietro Alessandrini and Alberto Zazzaro

SECTION 8. THE EXPERIENCES IN OTHER INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRIES
Introduction by Gabi Dei Ottati

35. Industrial Districts in Europe
Gioacchino Garofoli

36. Industrial Districts and the Governance of Local Economies: The French Example
Georges Benko and Bernard Pecqueur

37. Industrial Districts in Spain
Josep-Antoni Ybarra

38. Industrial Districts in Scandinavia
Bengt Johannisson

39. Industrial Districts in Japan
Yoshiyuki Okamoto

40. The University Research-Centric District in the United States
Donald Patton and Martin Kenney

SECTION 9. THE EXPERIENCES IN EMERGING AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Introduction by Werner Sengenberger

41. The Industrial District Model: Relevance for Developing Countries in the Context of Globalisation
Anne Caroline Posthuma

42. Industrial Districts in Latin America: The Role of Local Learning for Endogenous Development
Mario Davide Parrilli and Renato Garcia

43. Trajectories and Prospects of Industrial Districts in China
Jici Wang and Lixia Mei

44. The Complexity of Upgrading Industrial Districts: Insights from the Diesel Engine Industry of Ludhiana (India)
Meenu Tewari

45. The Scope of Industrial Districts in the Third World
Werner Sengenberger

PART IV: GLOBALISATION AND INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS

SECTION 10. GLOBAL CHALLENGES
Introduction by Enzo Rullani

46. Massachusetts High Tech: A ‘Manufactory of Species’
Michael H. Best

47. Industrial Districts, Sectoral Clusters and Global Competition in the Precious Jewellery Industry
Frank Pyke

48. The Internationalisation of Production Activities of Italian Industrial Districts
Giuseppe Tattara

49. Lessons from Industrial Districts for Historically Fordist Regions
Josh Whitford

SECTION 11. PUBLIC POLICIES AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
Introduction by Giovanni Solinas

50. External Economies, Specific Public Goods and Policies
Marco Bellandi

51. National Industrial Policies and the Development of Industrial Districts: Reflections on the Spanish Case
Joan Trullén

52. Public Policies for Industrial Districts and Clusters
Mikel Landabaso and Stuart Rosenfeld

53. The Industrial District Model in the Development Strategy of International Organizations: The Example of UNIDO
Giovanna Ceglie and Anna Stancher

Bibliography

Index