| Complexity and Industrial Clusters |
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"Complexity and Industrial Clusters. Dynamics and Models in Theory and Practice"
conference organized by Fondazione Edison and sponsored by the Accademia dei Lincei (Lincei Academy)
Milano, 19-20 June 2001
The Fondazione Edison, which was set up in 1999, is setting itself an ambitious objective with this international conference centered on the question of industrial clusters (and/or districts). It has been decided to organize the conference in this way not only because of the importance of industrial districts in Italy, but also because we think it is time to stop discussing clusters in generic terms without any differentiation or explanation. Various prestigious Italian economists have helped overcome the previous approach. The program also shows that the topic of clusters has stopped being a particularly Italian phenomenon, as it is now being looked at by eminent scholars in other countries as well. Of course, the logic underlying the conference is to verify above all the question that is implicit in the first part, namely: can the theory of complexity, which has had such an important role to play in the progress made by modern science, also thanks to the discoveries of Nobel Prize- Winner Murray Gell-Mann, provide us with a single key to interpret the economic dynamic on which industrial clusters have developed? The questions continue in the second part of the conference, the central one being: are the different general models of industrial clusters complementary ways of looking at the phenomenon, or are they alternative ways of doing so? And lastly, the question contained in the third part of the conference is whether the cases of successful clusters that now proliferate throughout the world are expressions of common elements or if they are situations that cannot be compared. These are vital questions that need answering in order to draw up a research program and develop a theoretical and applicative paradigm.
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