Will the post-neoliberal era represent a renaissance of industrial districts as we knew them?

Abstract

We have now entered a post-neoliberal era, characterised by deglobalisation and reindustrialisation to obtain resilience and security in value chains and increase manufacturing capacity in Europe and the US. Europe has not to the same extent suffered from deindustrialisation as the US. Typical examples of the industrial structure in Europe are the ’hidden champions’ of Germany and the industrial districts of the Third Italy. The industrial districts have been exposed to globalisation, resulting in the brake up of the original complete regional value chains through outsourcing in some sectors. However, in general the industrial districts have been surprisingly resilient during the 40 years period of neo-liberalist globalisation illustrating the ‘many possible world view’ of Sabel and Zeitlin (1985). In this contribution we ask what will the new tendencies of deglobalisation, regionalisation and Industry 4.0 digital technology mean for the future of the industrial district model? Will it imply a strengthening of the original form of industrial districts so that this model of (re)industrialisation once again takes on a position as a role model for developed economies. The intention of this letter is to introduce a discussion about this fascinating topic.