Description
Industrial Clusters shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic of industrial clusters, with a particular focus on clustering in the UK, bringing together a chronological coverage of the phenomenon.
This set of original essays by a group of leading business and industrial historians offers fresh perspectives about clusters and clustering. A primary emphasis of the collection is how knowledge is generated and disseminated across a cluster, and whether these processes stimulated innovation and consequently longer-term sustainability. This analysis also prompts questions about which unit of analysis to examine, from the entrepreneurs and firms they created through to the industry as a whole and district in which they are located, or whether one should look outside the region for explanatory factors. Covering regions as diverse as North Wales, the Scottish Highlands, the City of London, the Potteries, Sheffield and Lancashire, the essays have been channelled to provide a detailed understanding of these issues. The editors have also provided a challenging Conclusion that suggests a new research agenda that could well unravel some of the mysteries associated with clustering.
This edited collection will be of interest to international researchers, academics and students in the fields of business and management history, innovation, industrialisation and clusters.
Table of Contents
1. Industrial clusters in Great Britain: framing the debate
John F. Wilson, Chris Corker and Joe Lane
2. Industrial districts, entrepreneurship and the economic geography of Great Britain, 1851-1911
Harry Smith, Robert J. Bennett and Carry van Lieshout
3. The evolution of business networks and clusters
David Charles
4. The evolution of the North East England electronics sector
David Charles and John F. Wilson
5. Industrial clustering in a peripheral region: Path dependence and creation in the Scottish Highlands
Niall G. MacKenzie & Andrew Perchard
6. Forging ahead – the men behind the industrialisation of the Denbighshire coalfield
Bethan Lloyd Atkinson
7. Occupational change and the new knowledge economy; the case of Coventry city
J. Begley
8. The City of London as an industrial cluster since 1980
Mark Billings & Simon Mollan
9. Knowledge, identity and cooperation in an early industrial cluster: The Potteries in 1775
Joe Lane
10. The Sheffield innovation system 1860-1914: steel, armaments, metallurgy and education
Chris Corker
11. The City of financing regions and industrial clusters in the nineteenth century
Victoria Barnes & Lucy Newton
12. On the periphery? Autonomy, localism and community in a Lancashire cotton weaving district, Harle Syke c.1840-1936
J. Southern
13. Critical perspectives on industrial clusters
Chris Corker, Joe Lane and John F. Wilson
