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CLUSTERS: A MESMERISING MANTRA
Author(s) -
TAYLOR MICHAEL
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1467-9663
pISSN - 0040-747X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9663.2009.00583.x
Subject(s) - mantra , explanatory power , contingency , economics , entrepreneurship , power (physics) , chaotic , sociology , positive economics , set (abstract data type) , cluster (spacecraft) , neoclassical economics , capitalism , capital (architecture) , economic system , economic geography , epistemology , political science , management , computer science , geography , law , programming language , philosophy , physics , theology , archaeology , finance , quantum mechanics , politics
This paper argues that the cluster model of local economic growth is model that became a message that is now a mantra. It is an approach that has extended its explanatory reach through the accretion of layers of contingency. The paper suggests seven major limitations that undermine the explanatory power of what is now a mesmeric policy prescription for local economic development. It neglects the imperatives of capitalism, underestimates of the impact of unequal power relations on business relationships, fails to incorporate time, fetishises proximity, treats entrepreneurship simplistically, promotes the chaotic concept of institutional thickness, and is limited by the chaotic concept of social capital. It is concluded that a more nuanced and empirically grounded approach to agglomerated local growth is needed and a set of research questions is suggested.