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FLEXIBLE SPECIALISATION AND SMALL FIRMS IN ITALY: MYTHS AND REALITIES
Author(s) -
AMIN ASH
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
antipode
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.177
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1467-8330
pISSN - 0066-4812
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8330.1989.tb00177.x
Subject(s) - cornerstone , craft , mythology , optimism , economic geography , economic system , industrial organization , political science , business , economics , political economy , neoclassical economics , market economy , sociology , epistemology , history , philosophy , archaeology , classics
This paper offers a critical evaluation of the ‘Flexible Specialisation’ model which asserts that a new and dominant model of industrial organisation based upon craft principles is emerging, or can be nurtured in places where it does not yet exist. Drawing upon recent evidence from Italy, the country whose economic resurgence around small firms has become a cornerstone for the flexible specialisation thesis, the paper argues that there is little cause for the thesis's optimism for small flexible firms and their emancipatory role for the working class.