ABSTRACT
Technopoles have captured the imagination of national policy makers and local boosters alike. There are three faces of the technopole. The first is, quite simply, reindustrialization. The second objective is regional development. The third element is the creation of synergy. The Silicon Valley model has been so dominant that it has become a kind of myth, suggesting that it alone is capable of producing real synergy: that it, and only it, is the true innovative milieu. The critical synergistic effects depend also on specific forms of social organization and institutional support. Social networks, allowing for the informal exchange of technological information and for the interpersonal support of an entrepreneurial culture, prove to be essential ingredients for the formation of a self-sustaining innovative milieu. Thus, social networks are indeed essential elements in the generation of technological innovation, and they are the backbone of the social organization of any innovative locality.
