Abstract
This paper examines the early years of the Friesian Dairy School and is a case study of how knowledge institutions were integrated into a regional economic cluster. The dairy school was the result of cooperation between people and organisations from the economic and political sectors, which inspired the emergence of an industrial dairy cluster. The school had a difficult start because it was not clear whether higher education was a matter of private or public interest. In the discussions about the funding and direction of the school, we can observe how patterns of cooperation in and between the economic sector and the state were shaped. The study shows how cooperative structures originate in processes of trial and error. Cluster evolution can therefore be driven by both discord and consensus within economic networks. The result of such non-linear and multi-scalar developments ultimately reflect a clear differentiation of tasks between economic actors, the state and knowledge institutions.
Highlights
The building of cooperative structures between individuals and organisations is given an important position in cluster theories
This paper examines the early years of the Friesian Dairy School and is a case study of how knowledge institutions were integrated into a regional economic cluster
Cluster evolution can be driven by both discord and consensus within economic networks. The result of such non-linear and multi-scalar developments reflect a clear differentiation of tasks between economic actors, the state and knowledge institutions
Summary
The building of cooperative structures between individuals and organisations is given an important position in cluster theories. The building of a national infrastructure was a minor issue for the representatives of these networks, who were embedded in particular agricultural traditions These actors were driven foremost by the conviction that knowledge was a crucial asset in order to modernize their regional economic production systems. The multiple levels and the internal dynamics of cluster development will be investigated with the help of a dairy school built in the Friesian town of Bolsward. New cooperative structures were built by adapting to new circumstances, fostering the emergence of a Friesian industrial dairy cluster with a knowledge institution Against this background, the central questions addressed by this article focus on actors and the cooperation between them: who was involved in the foundation of the first (1889) and second (1904) dairy schools and how did they cooperate? We will again relate the case study to the broader theme of cluster development
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Schedule a callMore From: Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis/ The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History
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