Industrial Clusters: Knowledge, Innovation Systems and Sustainability in the UK

Description

Industrial Clusters shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic of industrial clusters, with a particular focus on clustering in the UK, bringing together a chronological coverage of the phenomenon. This set of original essays by a group of leading business and industrial historians offers fresh perspectives about clusters and clustering. A primary emphasis of the collection is how knowledge is generated and disseminated across a cluster, and whether these processes stimulated innovation and consequently longer-term sustainability. This analysis also prompts questions about which unit of analysis to examine, from the entrepreneurs and firms they created through to the industry as a whole and district in which they are located, or whether one should look outside the region for explanatory factors. Covering regions as diverse as North Wales, the Scottish Highlands, the City of London, the Potteries, Sheffield and Lancashire, the essays have been channelled to provide a detailed understanding of these issues. The editors have also provided a challenging Conclusion that suggests a new research agenda that could well unravel some of the mysteries associated with clustering. This edited collection will be of interest to international researchers, academics and students in the fields of business and management history, innovation, industrialisation and clusters. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Tables List of Figures Preface About the Authors 1. Industrial clusters in Great Britain: Framing the debate 2. Industrial districts, entrepreneurship and the economic geography of Great Britain, 1851–1911 3. The evolution of business networks and clusters 4. The evolution of the North-East England electronics sector 5. Industrial clustering in a peripheral region: Path dependence and creation in the Scottish Highlands 6. Forging Ahead – the men behind the industrialization of the Denbighshire coalfield 7. Occupational change and the new knowledge economy: The case of Coventry city 8. The City of London as an industrial cluster since 1980 9. Knowledge, identity and cooperation in an early industrial cluster: The Potteries in 1775 10. The Sheffield innovation system 1860–1913: Steel, armaments, metallurgy and education 11. The City of financing regions and industrial clusters in the nineteenth century 12. On the periphery? Autonomy, localism and community in a Lancashire cotton weaving district, Harle Syke c.1840–1936 13. Critical perspectives on industrial clusters Index