STICKY PLACES IN SLIPPERY SPACE - A TYPOLOGY OF INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS

As advances in transportation and information obliterate distance, cit ies and regions face a tougher time anchoring income-generating activi ties. In probing the conditions under which some manage to remain ''st icky'' places in ''slippery'' spate, this paper rejects the ''new indu strial district,'' in either its Marshallian or more recent Italianate form, as the dominant paradigmatic solution. I identify three additio nal types of industrial districts, with quite disparate firm configura tions, internal versus external orientations, and governance structure s: a hub-and-spoke industrial district, revolving around one or more d ominant, externally oriented firms; a satellite platform, an assemblag e of unconnected branch plants embedded in external organization links ; and the state-anchored district, focused on one or more public-secto r institutions. The strengths and weaknesses of each are reviewed. The hub-and-spoke and satellite platform variants are argued to be more p rominent in the United States than the other two. The findings suggest that the study of industrial districts requires a broader institution al approach and must encompass embeddedness across district boundaries . The research results suggest that a purely locally targeted developm ent strategy will fail to achieve its goals.