ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how the new process of specialisation and diversification has developed in each of the two industrial localities being studied, and the impact it has had on each one. It examines the role played by the various actors in the processes that encourage or impede the emergence of an innovative milieu. The chapter analyses the trajectories and processes of change in order to ascertain how and through which actors structural adjustments have been produced and identify the factors that prevent such adjustments from being made. The development of scientific and technical partnership is essential at a time when science and technology are becoming so complex that it is impossible for individual firms to exploit all the potential that exists. The chapter also examines the degree of diversification, co-operation and autonomy in the productive systems of the two old industrialised localities of Seine-Amont and the Plaine Saint-Denis.
