Industrial districts are local hyper-networks of self-organizing and innovating small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), which, in terms of competitiveness and employment, play an important role in Italy's society and economy. Italy's industrial structure is deeply embedded in social relations, which are stratified and vary from territory to territory. The university, partially replaced by innovation centres, plays a weak role. For industrial districts to survive the current crisis, an industrial policy based on new theoretical approaches is needed, capable of analysing and dealing with emergent forms of industrial organization.
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