Colin Crouch is currently head of the department of social and political sciences and professor of sociology at the European University Institute, Florence. He is chairman, and former joint editor, of The Political Quarterly, and chairman-elect of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE). He is also the External Scientific member of the Max-Planck-Institute for Social Research at Cologne. He has published within the fields of comparative European sociology and industrial relations, on economic sociology, and on contemporary issues in British and European politics. He is currently studying processes of institutional innovation in the economy and in public policy, in an approach critical of recent deterministic tendencies in neo-institutionalist theoriesPatrick Le Galès is a CNRS Research Professor in Sociology and Politics at CEVIPOF/Sciences Po, Paris, where he teaches. He has been a visitor at Nuffield College, Oxford, and the Maison Française, Oxford. He edits the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. His recent work includes Les Économies Politiques du Capitalisme (with B. Palier, 2002) and European Cities: Social Conflicts and Governance (OUP 2002).Carlo Trigilia is Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Florence. His recent works includes Economics Sociology: State, Market, and Society in Modern Capitalism (2002).Helmut Voelzkow is a wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Max Planck Institute for Society Research at Cologne, where he works on economic sociology, economic structural change and policy, and technological development. He gained his Habilitation at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Faultät für Sozialwissenschaft. His publications include Mehr Technik in die Region (1990) and Private Regierungen in der Techniksteuerung (1996).

• PART I: ESTABLISHED LOCAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS: THE MACHINERY INDUSTRIES; PART II: TRYING TO ESTABLISH LOCAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS: THE EX-STEEL CITIES; PART III: NEW LOCAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS: HIGH-TECH SECTORS

Colin Crouch is currently head of the department of social and political sciences and professor of sociology at the European University Institute, Florence. He is chairman, and former joint editor, of The Political Quarterly, and chairman-elect of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE). He is also the External Scientific member of the Max-Planck-Institute for Social Research at Cologne. He has published within the fields of comparative European sociology and industrial relations, on economic sociology, and on contemporary issues in British and European politics. He is currently studying processes of institutional innovation in the economy and in public policy, in an approach critical of recent deterministic tendencies in neo-institutionalist theoriesPatrick Le Galès is a CNRS Research Professor in Sociology and Politics at CEVIPOF/Sciences Po, Paris, where he teaches. He has been a visitor at Nuffield College, Oxford, and the Maison Française, Oxford. He edits the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. His recent work includes Les Économies Politiques du Capitalisme (with B. Palier, 2002) and European Cities: Social Conflicts and Governance (OUP 2002).Carlo Trigilia is Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Florence. His recent works includes Economics Sociology: State, Market, and Society in Modern Capitalism (2002).Helmut Voelzkow is a wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Max Planck Institute for Society Research at Cologne, where he works on economic sociology, economic structural change and policy, and technological development. He gained his Habilitation at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Faultät für Sozialwissenschaft. His publications include Mehr Technik in die Region (1990) and Private Regierungen in der Techniksteuerung (1996).

• PART I: ESTABLISHED LOCAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS: THE MACHINERY INDUSTRIES; PART II: TRYING TO ESTABLISH LOCAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS: THE EX-STEEL CITIES; PART III: NEW LOCAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS: HIGH-TECH SECTORS