Abstract
The article reviews the literature analyzing the theories of growth poles and centers and their policy implementation in the post-war decades. In the section presenting Perroux's theorization and subsequent amendments and developments by other growth poles students, it is showed how growth pole’ theory has appeared as a body of thinking reflecting on the dynamics of industrial location and agglomeration in abstract space and then has been translated into a geographic theory of industrial growth. The article reconsiders the criticism raised by those authors who have highlighted the weaknesses and the internal incoherence of Perrouxian theory and most notably of its geographic versions. After having presented and critically discussed some cases of policy and planning programs that have drawn inspiration from growth pole theory, particularly those of the Italian Mezzogiorno, Spain, the Appalachian Region, and the Latin American countries, the article concludes by speculating on the intellectual legacy of this field of research and regional planning in the light of more recent developments in regional development studies and related policy practices.
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