Clustering Activities: A New Terrain for Industrial Relations?

Prepared as part of a research project titled " The Importance of Clusters to Urban and Regional Prosperity in a Globalised Economy " , coordinated by L'institute ABSTRACT Since the 1980s, the emergence of clusters of firms and industrial districts has inspired a large amount of literature on the subject. Most of the research has focused on analysing how these agglomerations of firms embedded in socially and politically based networks and guided by the principle of cooperation can be a resource for economic competitiveness. However, few authors have explicitly addressed the implications of this form of economic organisation for industrial relations. Streeck (1993) claims that the role and state of labour, in particular organised labour, has been persistently ignored by the industrial districts literature. This paper attempts to build on this gap, to raise some questions and open debate around the implications of clustering activity for industrial relations and vice versa.