ABSTRACT
The chapter considers a number of alternative solutions proposed for such areas, a range of options that must be understood in relation to the limits set by the national regulatory frameworks as they themselves have been radically altered over the last 15 years or so in most of the advanced capitalist states of Europe. It examines the extent to which these presuppose particular localized forms of cultural change and involve innovations in institutional arrangements. Local institutional innovation and local pro-activity can never in this sense be sufficient to guarantee economic regeneration and social progress. Local institutions may be important in some circumstances in fostering change, in others in resisting it. The enterprise culture project essentially aimed to replace large firms with small ones as a source of waged labour and/or waged labour with self-employment, or even emergent capitalist status, for some people as part of a radical class restructuring of old industrial areas.
