Path-dependence and change in an old industrial area: the case of Taranto, Italy

Greco, Lidia; Fabbio, Mariadele Di

doi:10.1093/cjres/rsu012

Cited by 27 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Geographers have contributed significantly to the emerging field, forging links between path-dependency and the importance of space and place -situating networks, industries and knowledge flows geographically, especially at the city-region scale (e.g. Scott 2000;2006a;Markusen 2010;Greco and Di Fabbio 2014). Over time, systems of technology, organization or product become locked-in, "reverberat[ing] through history, closing alternative paths and validating a particular path (Martin and Sunley 2006, 401).…”

Section: Towards An Evolutionary Economic Geography Of Contemporary Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Material Inheritances: How Place, Materiality, and Labor Process Underpin the Path-dependent Evolution of Contemporary Craft Production

Gibson

2015

Economic Geography

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This article explores the historic-geographic evolution of contemporary craft production, with sensitivity to materiality of labor process, product design, and accompanying place mythologies. Craft productionincreasingly interpolated as a form of creative work-is shaped by concerns about retrieving archaic tools and ways of making things, celebrating provenance and the haptic skills of makers, and delivering (and marketing) manual labor process. In contrast to evolutionary economic geography's seeming immateriality and abstraction, attention is drawn to material aspects of place and path dependence that undergird geographies of new craft industries: how labor process evolves, in iteration with technical lock-ins that stem from production method, product design, and capacities of component materials, but also how legacies of mass manufacturing linger in putatively authentic places-shaping new geographic concentrations. An especially vivid case is explored: a cluster of cowboy bootmaking workshops in El Paso, Texas. Bootmaking has metamorphosed from artisanal to factory to a craft-based creative mode of production. Crucial were continuity in product design and evolution of labor process. So, too, was geography: an iconic borderland city location with historic legacies of labor intensive mass manufacturing; migrant workers with requisite embodied skills; antique tools; and significant stocks of leather, the core input material that must be seen, felt, and smelt by makers before fabrication. I argue for a grounded, critical evolutionary economic geography that requires stronger intersection with labor process, with the cultural logics infusing capitalism, and with greater recognition of material inheritances that are reconfigured in place over successive generations. AbstractThis article explores the historical-geographical evolution of contemporary craft production, with sensitivity to materiality of labor process, product design, and accompanying place mythologies. Craft production -increasingly interpolated as a form of creative work -is shaped by concerns to retrieve archaic ways of making things, to celebrate provenance and the haptic skills of makers, and to render visible (and to market) manual labor process. In contrast to evolutionary economic geography's seeming immateriality and abstraction, attention is drawn to material aspects of place and path dependence that undergird geographies of "new" craft industries: how labor process evolves, in iteration with technical lock-ins that stem from production method, product design and capacities of component materials; but also how legacies of mass manufacturing linger in putatively "authentic" places -shaping new geographic concentrations. An especially vivid case is explored: a cluster of cowboy bootmaking workshops in El Paso, Texas. Bootmaking has metamorphosed from artisanal to factory to a craft-based creative mode of production. Crucial were continuity in product design and evolution of labor process. So too was geography: an iconic borderland city...

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Section: Towards An Evolutionary Economic Geography Of Contemporary Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Material Inheritances: How Place, Materiality, and Labor Process Underpin the Path-dependent Evolution of Contemporary Craft Production

Gibson

2015

Economic Geography

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“…The industrial development of Taranto has been exploited by a few invisible coalitionsor 'invisible polluting coalitions' (IPC) (Coalizioni di potere generatrici di inquinamento ambientale)made up of local and national entrepreneurs, politicians and trade union leaders (Greco & Di Fabbio, 2014). Supported and sustained by a system of political patronage, corruption, administrative incompetence and a 'silent majority' of citizens (Monno, 2010;Bianchi, 2011), these coalitions have always glossed over the environmental pollution and health hazards caused by the steel industry.…”

Section: The Strategic Planning Of Area Vasta Tarantinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating strategic metropolitan planning in Bari and Taranto

Grassini

Monno

Khakee

2018

European Planning Studies

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Following the Italian Government's decision to fund strategic planning in order to promote a sustainable and competitive development in city-regions in southern Italy, the regional governments were asked to steer proactively strategic planning initiatives within their respective territory. In the cases of Bari and Taranto, it was the first time that 31 municipalities constituting Metropolitan Bari and 28 municipalities constituting sub-region Taranto attempted to think collectively in order to prepare the strategic plan. This paper evaluates strategic planning in Bari and Taranto sub-regions and discusses lessons learnt for future efforts in strategic planning. We examine why were the strategic plans made and how was the planning process organized and what, if any, impact these attempts had on development strategies and governance models at the urban-regional level.

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“…Others have integrated these arguments into more recent work aiming to further develop concepts of path dependence in EEG (cf. Greco and Di Fabbio, 2014).…”

Section: Evolutionary Political Economic Geographiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of production II

Jones

2016

Progress in Human Geography

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Within economic geography, it has been argued that political economy approaches have diminished in both prevalence and influence to the detriment of both the sub-discipline and to human geography as a whole. This report challenges such a perspective, arguing that political economic geographies remains very much vibrant and engaging in contemporary economic geography and in the way in which economic geographers engages with the nature of the contemporary global economy. It argues that the perceived retreat of political economy approaches corresponds more to a diversification of the ways in which political economic thinking is integrated into more recent economic geography, acknowledging that this does reduce the apparent coherence around a singular articulation or approach to geographical political economy. However, it also seeks to demonstrate through reviewing recent pluralist theoretical work that political economic geography has broadened its theoretical framework and thus made significant contributions to ongoing debates around the geographies of production within the sub-discipline that had not previously been the object of political economic analysis.

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Path-dependence and change in an old industrial area: the case of Taranto, Italy

Cited by 27 publications

References 24 publications

Material Inheritances: How Place, Materiality, and Labor Process Underpin the Path-dependent Evolution of Contemporary Craft Production

Material Inheritances: How Place, Materiality, and Labor Process Underpin the Path-dependent Evolution of Contemporary Craft Production

Evaluating strategic metropolitan planning in Bari and Taranto

Geographies of production II

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