ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the key arguments of the localization thesis which predicts a return to industrial districts, and some of the major criticisms that have been made of the claim that there is a resurgence of the regional economy on a pervasive scale. It describes reformulate the localization and globalization theses so as to provide a space for local agglomeration within growing global production filieres. The chapter explains to illustrate these and other contentions via a consideration of the history of two industrial districts. On the other hand, it has to be stressed that as things are even the neo-Marshallian nodes of global corporate networks are finding it difficult to retain their status. In the case of the City of London, what was a Marshallian industrial district of considerable local integrity has evolved into an industrial complex which has some Marshallian features but which relies on global networking to cement these features in place?
