Clusters industriais, competitividade e desenvolvimento regional: da experiência à necessidade de promoção

Abstract

The fields of industrial organization and regional development present now considerable interplay, largely due to the European experience concerning industrial clusters and districts. That subject is the focus of attention in this article, which draws on field research in the Medium Itajaí Valley, one of the main areas of textile and clothing production in Brazil. Inspired by an international debate about industrial clusters and districts that stresses the role played by external economies, interfirm cooperation and institutions, the paper seeks both to describe the local production structure and investigate restructuring related to the macroeconomic changes Brazil underwent in the 90’s. After discussing some conceptual points, the paper (a) looks into the evolution and some present features of the textile and clothing sectors in the region, (b) considers the  effects in the local system caused by trade opening undertaken in Brazil, specially the producers’ reactions, and (c) approaches the question of promoting clusters in order to strengthen regional development.