After the Three Italies

Michael Dunford is Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Sussex. In 2000 he was elected member of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences (AcSS). In 1996-2002 he was Editor of Regional Studies. In 2003 he received the Royal Geographical Society Edward Heath Award for geographical research in Europe. He has held Visiting Professorships at the universities of Pavia, Toulouse, Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne, Campinas in Brazil, Oslo and Sciences-Po in Paris. His previous publications include Cities and Regions in the New Europe (1992) and Successful European Regions: Northern Ireland Learning from Others (1996).Lidia Greco is Lecturer in the Sociology of Economics and Labour Processes at the University of Bari, Italy. She previously worked at Trinity College, Dublin, where she carried out two EU-funded research projects. As a consultant, Lidia has worked for the University of Durham and the Sussex European Institute, and more recently for the European Union. She is the author of Industrial Redundancies: A Comparative Analysis of the Chemical and Clothing Industries in the UK and Italy (2002) and co-author of Building the European Research Area: European Socio-Economic Research in Practice (forthcoming).

"In their analytically original study, Dunford and Greco show that Italy today is divided predominantly into two regions (north and south) and that the development path of each region must necessarily be understood in relation to that of the other. These findings have major significance for political-economic geography well beyond the Italian case."--John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles"A welcome and detailed dissection of the changing geography of economic growth and decline in Italy, that demonstrates the importance and theoretical value of understanding the dynamic micro-foundations of regional economic change."--Professor Peter Sunley, School of Geography, University of Southampton"The book is, in sum a good example of theoretically informed empirical research in economic geography, which is aware of and inspired by but also not unconditionally adhering to the dominant theories and approaches in the discipline ... The book by Dunford & Greco is one of these attempts aiming to bring together empirical analysis of regional economies and the social critique of global capitalism. The authors have accomplished this difficult task in a brilliant way and for this reason their book is ultimately recommended reading not only to those interested in issues of regional development in Southern Europe but more generally to all practitioners of economic geography and related disciplines."--Royal Dutch Geographical Society

• List of Figures xiList of Tables xivSeries Editors’ Preface xviiPreface and Acknowledgements xviiiList of Abbreviations xxiii1 Introduction: Growth, Inequality and the Territorial Division of Labour 1Areal differentiation and development models 1After the Three Italies 8A new economic geography of uneven development 12The structure of the book 152 Convergence, Divergence, Regional Economic Performance and the New Economic Geographies 17Analyzing regional economic performance 17Convergence or divergence 20Territorial divisions of labour 26Conclusions 393 Theorizing Regional Economic Performance and the Changing Territorial Division of Labour: Value Chains, Industrial Networks, Competition and Governance 41Introduction 41Basic and nonbasic industries 42Explaining the dynamics of activities serving wider markets 43Enterprises and their environment: establishing the frontiers/boundaries of the firm 50Enterprises and their environment: interfirm relations 52Modes of governance and growth 58Conclusions 614 Growth and Inequality: The Political Economy of Italian Development 64Introduction 64Italy’s economy in its European and Mediterranean context 65Official statistics, unrecorded activities and the measurement of output 70GDP, net transfers and regional income 76Territorial inequality in Italy at the turn of the millennium 80Catching up, falling behind, surging ahead and losing ground: trends in Italian regional development 87Conclusions 905 Institutional Dynamics and Regional Performance 92Introduction 92The institutional configuration and the characteristics of Italian capitalism 93Institutional context and territorial development dynamics 97Crime and territorial development 102Changes in the 1990s: the political scene 104Changes in the 1990s: the system of governance 107Changes in the 1990s: debt reduction and privatization 111Changes in the 1990s: territorial development policies 113Concluding remarks: the implications of recent trends 1246 Italian Regional Evolutions 128Introduction 128Italian regional evolutions 130Comparative regional development 140Comparative provincial development 147Employment, productivity and investment 149Economic specialization, exports and international integration 155After the Three Italies: the origins and limits of the district model 159Conclusions 1697 Industrial Change and Regional Development: The Changing Sectoral Profile of Regional Development and the Evolving Regional Profile of Industrial Change 170Introduction 170The sectoral profile of regional economies 170Sectoral structures and uneven development 173The changing geography of vehicle manufacturing in Italy and the world 187The changing geography of chemical manufacturing in Italy and the world 200Conclusions 2078 Globalization, Industrial Restructuring and the Italian Motor Vehicle Industry 209Introduction 209The FIAT Group: changing functions in the value chain and changing chains 210Globalization and market-seeking investments 216FIAT in Italy: technological and organizational upgrading and geographies of production 225Outsourcing, redefining corporate boundaries and restructuring the supply chain 230Crisis, markets and models 236Conclusions 242Afterword 2439 Reconfiguring Industrial Activities and Places: The Italian Chemical Industry 244Introduction 244The Italian chemical industry and its changing position in the wider European and world context 245History and characteristics of the Italian chemical industry 252Trajectories of restructuring 255The role of SMEs 262Another aspect of the new international division of labour: foreign companies in Italy 264Experiences and regional impacts of restructuring: the disengagement of the chemical industry in Puglia 266From growth pole to industrial cemetery: the disengagement of the chemical industry from Basilicata 271Conclusions 28010 Conclusions and Further Remarks 282Introduction 282Geography as a spatial expression of a social order 282Geography and development models 283Contemporary perspectives on industrial change and regional economic performance 284Theorizing industrial change and regional inequality: profit strategies and value chain upgrading 286Areal differentiation and uneven development in Italy: from the north–south divide to the Three Italies and after 288Economic decline and the limits of the district model 290Industrial and regional performance 293Conclusions: inequalities, territorial divisions of labour and profit strategies 294References 296Notes 312Appendices 318Subject Index 335Author Index 343