ABSTRACT
At a time when new theoretical models to explain the relative contraction of nationaland growth of international-markets are being developed, analysis of the “Marshallian industrial districts”2 has been used by Italian researchers to explain the relative process of certain regions in coming to grips with these new conditions. The dynamics of employment in many regions of that country and the ability of these regions to withstand national and international competition is seen as the result of the flexibility of the production systems of their industrial districts. This flexibility is said to be the reward for a coordination of production between the social base and the smooth regulation of economic, social, and political elements in a local context. The industrial district promotes flexibility due to the coordination of productive structure and its social roots.
