ABSTRACT
Geographical clusters are agglomerations of industry that have been variously referred to as ‘industrial districts’ (Pyke et al., 1990), ‘new industrial spaces’ (Scott, 1988), ‘milieus’ (Camagni, 1991) and ‘nodes’ (Amin and Thrift, 1992). The study of clusters is not new, dating back at least to the work of Marshall (1890). The recent revival of interest in the phenomenon has three important sources. The first is a growing body of empirical work showing high and rising levels of clustering across a wide range of industries (e.g. Kim, 2007). The second is another growing body of empirical work, which shows that clustering can be associated with high economic performance: ‘buzz’ and knowledge spillovers (e.g. Malmberg and Maskell, 2002; Storper and Venables, 2004); that firms in strong clusters grow faster than average and that strong clusters attract a disproportionate number of new entrants (e.g. Pandit et al., 2008); and that productivity and innovation (e.g. Swann, 2009) are higher within strong clusters. The third is the influential work on the relationality of clusters, linked through distinctive ties, ‘pipelines’ and cross-border economic practice through co-presence in global (urban) networks (e.g. Bathelt and Turi, 2011; Bathelt et al., 2004). Importantly, the concept of the cluster has firmly put the mantra (and role) of ‘location’ back on the agenda for economic growth, performance and longevity in the spatialisation of the knowledge and ‘real’ economy (e.g. Martin and Sunley, 2003).
