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This seminal study explores systemic sustainability within the Industry 5.0 paradigm, using the strategic lens of geoanthropology to shape the emerging concept of Industry 6.0. A transdisciplinary approach is adopted, integrating geoanthropological insights into the analysis of the Italian ceramic district. Seven key factors are considered: resource consumption, production dynamics, innovation, environmental impact, social impact, market dynamics, and economic impact. Historical events such as changes in Italian industrial policy, market slowdowns, and the COVID-19 pandemic are identified as significant for the sector. A contingent analysis tailored to the unique characteristics of the ceramic district provides an in-depth understanding of its challenges and opportunities. The incorporation of geoanthropology provides a transdisciplinary perspective that allows for an in-depth examination of the complex interactions between people and their environment in an industrial setting. The study highlights the central role of innovation, digitalization, and government policies in driving positive changes in production efficiency, market dynamics, and economic impact. Nevertheless, challenges remain, including the delicate balance between environmental sustainability and resource consumption, as well as the effective management of the social impacts of digitization. To address these challenges, a systemic sustainability index derived from geoanthropological insights is proposed as a pragmatic tool to measure and guide the development of sustainability initiatives in the ceramic district. The results of this study not only pave the way for new horizons in sustainability assessment but also provide valuable insights for industrial district managers to formulate strategies that foster organizational flexibility and resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to 'network' between businesses and local institutions has been the subject of numerous studies and has fueled a line of multidisciplinary research which has made it possible to highlight the complexity of local systems and the interconnection between culture, economy and society. On the political-institutional side, the image of a 'virtuous' territory has been built which, through these links, strengthens its ability to create 'value' both by successfully adapting to the new complexities brought about by the neoliberal system and by exploiting the opportunities it offers. In fact, economic indicators overall show an increase in production after a succession of repeated pre- and post-pandemic crises. However, these same networks prove inadequate to effectively counter the increase in small entrepreneurs in economic difficulty. Starting from my recent field experience in Brianza, this article aims to illustrate some situations that have required the intervention of social services, but also the difficulty of these in developing intervention projects on people/families atypical with respect to social groups normally recipients of aid. Their atypicality lies in the fact that normative categories such as 'unemployed', 'poor', 'marginalized' cannot be uncritically reproduced in their regard, through which services normally develop intervention practices and ways of defining problems, before 'identification/activation of specific social networks in the area. Affected by the crisis and excluded from the benefits of the economic recovery, these subjects, central figures of the neoliberal society project, end up turning to social services when the legislative provisions to protect the business activity prove inadequate and when the family economic situation is now compromised.

Copyright of Iraqi National Journal of Earth Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores to what extent and under what conditions resilience can be developed to cope with radical innovations in the industrial district context. Based on a comparative analysis of an Italian and Spanish cluster, this paper provides and in-depth examination of the transformation at the firm and cluster levels at the introduction, development, and diffusion of disruptive technologies, that enable clusters to cope with it and thrive. Our findings identify cluster attributes that support resilience and propose different measures of district resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of GeSec: Revista de Gestao e Secretariado is the property of Sindicato das Secretarias e Secretarios do Estado de Sao Paulo (SINSESP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The importance of social networks in setting-up and running a business is well established in the literature. Experts on informality have concluded that with the development of a country, the informal sector will increasingly turn formal. However, evidence from this study indicates otherwise. This study looks at Surat in India which is one of the largest textile producing cities internationally. The industrial district has numerous informal establishments that form a part of the crucial ecosystem, working in cohesion with the more established 'formal' firms. The study examines the roles that social networks play in sustaining the textile industry. The research infers that social networks are crucial to run a business in the Surat textile market as all transactions take place through informal contracts, which are grounded on trust-based 'references', thereby making a strong network structure a key requirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current epoch is characterised by a series of critical events that have upset fieldwork research and continue to affect it. The industrial district of the Brianza has always proved to be resilient and capable of overcoming market turbulences, but the rapid sequence of critical events in an industrial context already exposed to other frailties is producing further uncertainty and liminality. The researcher is likewise facing his own uncertainties. The time lag between the observation of the fast changing situation and the writing moment which, occurring necessarily after the observation period, seems to be unable to keep up with the shifting reality. Thus, both interlocutors and researcher are seeking new conceptual inventories in their own ways to understand the present and imagine the future in a context of prolonged liminality.

The digitalization of cultural heritage is crucial for revamping the creative and cultural sectors during a period of stagnation. This work is about the revitalization of the Kyoto kimono cluster through digitalization, which initiated a new exaptive development path for a declining cluster. A growing community of economic geographers and regional scientists has begun to discuss regional path development beyond related and unrelated diversification. We focus on path renewal, which involves major change of a path into a new direction based on new technologies or organizational innovations. Existing knowledge and skills in a region are combined in new ways and may be linked to relevant extra-regional knowledge to provide new knowledge, enabling innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. The process encompasses the intentional and serendipitous actions of individual entrepreneurs (firm-level) and networks of systemic configurations (system-level). A narrative approach is used to capture the path renewal dynamics in the Kyoto kimono cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial networks have evolved from aggregations of a number of suppliers around a few final producers, towards more balanced organisations of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that within the European industrial system, today compose by more than 95% of all small-mid enterprises in the non-financial sector. The crucial character of a SME aggregation into a cluster is the existence of an effective collaboration among SMEs possibly supported by clear interactions (e.g. production flows and information), by a commonly recognised management objective and by well assessed connections with external markets. Based on these conditions, the paper first discusses a general conceptual model of a SME cluster, making evidence of the above-mentioned three basic characters of the cluster itself. Then, the conceptual model is used to formalise a SME cluster and its organisation in terms of amid-term cluster management optimisation problem. The model can help a cluster management and control unit in evaluating the cluster performance and the positive effects of an effective collaboration among SMEs. Based on the formal general model, a survey of typical SME clusters in some European countries is presented in order to compare the different types of SME aggregations and of their collaborative frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the location, origins, and early development of clusters and industrial districts in the agribusiness sector. It considers the case of the meat processing industry in the second half of the 19th century in Catalonia, a prosperous southern-European region in the period when this industry emerged. By constructing an index of potential locations at the municipal level, the paper discusses whether, and to what extent, deterministic factors explain the genesis of pigmeat processing clusters. The paper concludes that although these latter factors need primary consideration, contingency, particularly human agency, may also play a non-negligible role. As an illustration, this study pays particular attention to the cluster of Vic, which developed around this middle-sized town in central Catalonia. It became a leading meat cluster in early 20th-century Spain, even though it was not better suited to this industry than other Catalan localities where meat companies had also emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine whether industrial parks, industrial districts, science and technology parks and business incubators could be considered as precursor forms of cluster development. In this regard, we conducted a descriptive analysis of the common and different aspects that arise in various forms of spatial organization of business. We decided to compare them two by two to observe, in a detailed form, how industrial parks, industrial districts, science and technology parks and business incubators resemble or differ from the innovative form of spatial business organization, the cluster. Thus, the paper focuses on contextualizing and conceptualizing the forms of spatial organization of business by researching the literature, identifying specific elements in an orderly and relevant sense. The research technique is that of reviewing the specialized literature. The documentary literature identified in the Web of Science database was used as documentary sources, especially on the scientific articles that attest to the different types of spatial organization of business. The work does not stop only at industrial parks, industrial districts, science and technology parks and business incubators and goes beyond a classic business approach, to one focused on innovation, such as clusters. Based on the characteristics identified in each of the materials studied, we presented the cluster so that it reflects what it represents at the moment, namely an innovative form of spatial business organization.

The book published by French medievalist Catherine Verna L’industrie au village (2017) raises a double question: on the one hand because it uses the term industry in reference to the Middle Ages, and on the other because it associates the same term with the village, i.e. rurality, whereas medieval industry – at least for those who think it is possible to talk about industry during these times – is traditionally associated with cities rather than the countryside. In the introduction of the book, Verna conducts a historiographical review of the concept of industry, limited to only French medievalists. This paper endeavors a similar review but focused on Italian historiography, illustrating how the concept of industry appears no clearer to Italian medievalists than it does to French ones. In addition, it discusses the definition of industry proposed by Verna – in order to determine whether it is appropriate or not to talk about “industry in the pre-industrial times” – and analyzes what the author means by the expression “industry in the village”. In particular, it pays attention to the concepts of small town and industrial district developed by Verna within her case study (the Pyrenean village of Arles-sur-Tech and the Vallespir localities in the 14th and 15th centuries), i.e. two concepts that constitute valuable interpretive keys for the history of medieval and modern Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to demonstrate the evolutionary and comparative analysis of textile industry clusters in the world, in Brazil and in the state of Minas Gerais, pointing to the latter, the importance for the region, the strengths/weaknesses and their differentials. In section two, the methodological procedures are presented, then the theoretical reference on clusters. In section four presents the evolutionary and comparative analysis in the world, in Brazil and in the State of Minas Gerais. Finally, section five presents the final considerations that include and detail the contribution achieved. For the theoretical basis of this work, a survey was made in the following databases: Scopus (Elsevier), Materials Science & Engineering Database, Sage Publications (CrossRef), OneFile (GALE), SpringerLink, Emerald Insigth, Taylor & Francis Online were used to deepen the analysis of the information. Four pillars support the theoretical framework of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is focused on how Industry 4.0 is diffused within a Marshallian industrial district (MID) through collective action. It explains how MIDs adopt Industry 4.0 through collective initiatives for digitization, bypassing many barriers to change through the utilization of a collective project built upon a key feature of MIDs: cooperation. Results from interviews show a real living lab built upon a place-based bottom-up-oriented policy initiative co-designed by policymakers, collective actors and local firms, aimed at facilitating transition into Industry 4.0 in the Toy Valley district in the Valencia region of Spain. The results contribute to the emergent literature on district digitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to adopt the absorptive capacity (ACAP) framework to understand radical innovation in industrial districts (IDs), adopting a multi-level perspective. By performing a longitudinal case study on an ID that has successfully introduced a radical innovation – the plastic ski boot innovation developed within the Montebelluna Sportsystem district in Italy – the paper highlights how key elements of the ACAP framework (i.e. its components, antecedents, and contingent factors) allow understanding wherein IDs might indeed successfully introduce radical innovations, and what are the specificities as respect as considering a single organisation as unit of analysis. Important policy implications arise, regarding how to support IDs competitiveness and resilience thanks to radical innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the 4th industrial revolution (IR), firms’ linkages to global knowledge are considered key to improving the innovation capabilities and competitiveness of firms embedded in local industrial districts (IDs). So far, most of the analyses have focused on the complementarity and integration between local and global networks, which have somehow over-shadowed the national dimension of production and innovation processes. With special reference to mechatronics producers, recent trends of Italian firms exploit the critical role of national innovation networks for firms within local systems. In this sense, the national dimension plays a key role in defining the quality and direction of the competitive models of ID firms integrating within global value chains.

Industrial districts face challenges after the advent of information technology (on line), which considers that places are not important but for some industry players and consumers to determine. Research aims to offer practical and implementable solutions for industry players so that their performance is at a minimum before or after moving to an industrial district. Journal research methods are used in this study with journal sources originating from reputable international journals and scopus indexed. The concept of the model of knowledge of communication adaptation is our finding. The concept model is derived from the industrial district theorem and organizational knowledge typology. Knowledge of communication adaptation is a mediating alternative between government perceptions and industry players. Concept definitions are explained in this study

Place leadership (PL) influences the capability of places hit by disruptive challenges to react and reroute to new paths of development. Recent contributions consider the positive role of PL, while negative aspects are still under-investigated. This paper proposes a conceptual framework that, focusing on local productive systems (LPSs), explores PL's dark side. Forms of PL accompanying LPSs show different degrees of openness and strength that interact with the same LPS structural features. Enclosed forms of PL, aiming to preserve restricted and well-established interests, might intentionally resist attempts of LPS rerouting if undermining such interests, albeit beneficial to the system overall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the location, origins, and early development of clusters and industrial districts in the agribusiness sector. It considers the case of the meat processing industry in the second half of the 19th century in Catalonia, a prosperous southern-European region in the period when this industry emerged. By constructing an index of potential locations at the municipal level, the paper discusses whether, and to what extent, deterministic factors explain the genesis of pigmeat processing clusters. The paper concludes that although these latter factors need primary consideration, contingency, particularly human agency, may also play a non-negligible role. As an illustration, this study pays particular attention to the cluster of Vic, which developed around this middle-sized town in central Catalonia. It became a leading meat cluster in early 20th-century Spain, even though it was not better suited to this industry than other Catalan localities where meat companies had also emerged.

We have entered the 21st century facing a global trend of massive urbanization leading to an increasing concentration of population in relatively few, large cities. This exacerbates the share of GDP produced in cities (80%). Today, more than 54% of the world population lives in a city and this number will likely increase by the end of this century to 80%. This trend implies a redefinition of what a city, and what an agglomeration, is. There is then no doubt that the city has become the central point in various social sciences and that agglomeration economics have become an important topic in development economics. Smart Cities have become in this context an important topic in Regional science and in applied economics and geography. There is no doubt that the development of new technologies and especially information technologies have created their own issues. Actually, Smart cities are combining a production function and a housing and living environment one. But one can also see “Smart cities” as a new form of the industrial district issue. Regional science has known an important development since the late 1980 when the Marshallian concept of the “industrial district” came back to favour and became major a topic in development studies. The turn from the “industrial district” to “smart cities” is a much more recent one. But still in smart city studies as in industrial district ones, the same range of issues, some of them purely economic and others more politically oriented, are at stake

Ciudad Pegaso was promoted by the Empresa Nacional de Autocamiones (ENASA), linked to the Instituto Nacional de Industria, to provide housing for its employees. It is an early example of an industrial district created by the urban policies of the time (sketches 1949, fi rst phase 1956, second phase 1960). There, the Falangist ideas of the “Ciudad del Movimiento” (an organic and gated city in which the class struggle is overcome by their juxtaposition in the same space) come together, and on the other hand, the tendency of the regime in favor of segregation of the working masses in suburban neighborhoods as a form of social control, come together.

Italy’s industrial districts of the Northeast are often cited as beings models of success due to their economic organisation, thus they have almost become an archetypal myth. One of the reasons for the Northeastern firms’ success is proximity (both geographical and relational), particularly with regard to the creation and development of the districts and their innovative and competitive capacity on a global scale. Our research compares the structures of proximity in Montebelluna, an industrial district in Northeast Italy, with Timisoara (in Romania), which has been one of the more favoured areas of delocalisation for Veneto firms. This comparison made it possible to focus on the non-economic categories (such as trust, face-to-face relations, cooperative attitudes, local context…) that have contributed to a large part of their success, although, in reality, they are often overvalued. Above all, the analysis reveals how these Italian industrial districts have concealed an unequal distribution of power, not only inside the firms and between the firms, but also between the firms and their delocalised territories. Today the “Northeast” model is questioned and debated; however a rethinking of regional dynamics is only possible if these hidden dimensions of district development are taken into consideration.