Lo sviluppo locale in un sistema centralizzato: spunti da una rivisitazione della letteratura francese

The interest for the local systems, in the tradition of the social sciences in France, was usually marginalized because of the hegemony exercised by the macro-economic approaches. In the last years, this orientation has been replaced by a growing attention for the localized industrial systems, by both the policy makers and the social scientists. The re-legitimisation of the local dimension has been suggested also by the experience of the “Third Italy”, often assumed in an uncritical and de-contextualised way, with the risk of creating a “new orthodoxy”, so dangerous as the structuralistic one. The aim of this essay is to demonstrate how we can appreciate the heuristic importance of the studies on the Italian local model only renouncing to the perspective of their generalization. Starting by a wide review of the French literature, the article highlights the social foundations of any given model of development, with particular reference to the institutional and political context conditioning economic actors.