ABSTRACT
However, through time, industrial districts are only as stable as their forms of societal organisation. Increasing evidence emphasises contingent factors, which are responsible both for the emergence, growth and success of a district and for its decline. As Bianchi (1998) put it, "industrial districts are concrete geo-historical formations and not abstract, timeless constructions. Thus, it is legitimate to study the processes of genesis, decline and transformation" (p.97). It is, however, not surprising that the majority of district studies look primarily at success stories, and hence more on the genesis, growth and maturity of districts. Studies on declining industrial districts are very few.
