A Handbook of Industrial Districts (Electronic book text)

'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.' - Soren 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.