ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the mechanisms of 'knowledge transfer', 'learning' and innovation that might generate local social capital in the 'clustering' and 'commodity chain' contexts. It explores the massive shifts in the domestic and international regulatory regimes and in the regime of international competition that have confronted Argentina's tanning industry. The chapter examines the nature of inter-firm relationships at both local and international scales to reflect on the existence of mechanisms of 'learning' that might create local social capital. From the analysis of the tanning industry it is concluded that the machinations of international capital and their interplay with the local governance regime in Argentina at best restrict and at worst inhibit processes that might create local social capital and the self-sustaining local economic growth that Argentina seeks. The evidence from Argentina's tanning companies suggests that local strategies are not the answer, as the cluster model of embedded local growth would suggest.
