This text introduces a set of papers representing the main contribution of the "Florence school" to contemporary literature on industrial districts. The authors illustrate that the revitalization of the concept of industrial districts, returning to Alfred Marshall's 19th-century writings, is rooted in an unconventional interpretation of the economic development of Tuscany after World War II. Models of industrial organization and empirical investigation of industrial tendencies are featured, and Alfred Marshall's concepts of the advantages of the geographical agglomeration of specialized small...

This remarkable book outlines the historical framework and the main concepts of the literature on industrial districts. It illustrates a new approach to the study of industrial development, based on well-known industrial districts analysis. Giacomo Becattini has written an authoritative volume which, starting with the theory of districts, explore key aspects of contemporary capitalism. The book concludes that industrial districts are not a provisory phenomenon but a variant of the capitalist mode of production, where financial relationships are relatively less important, and inter-human ones...