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Video Interview with Prof. Becattini

"Nosce te ipsum", know yourself. This is one of the core messages contained in the interview with Prof. Becattini on clusters and regional development policies presented at TCI's last annual conference in Lyon 2006. In this occasion, in fact, the participants had the priviledge to see a video with the father of the "industrial districts" concept recorded just some weeks before in Florence, Italy, by Emiliano Duch, member of the Board of Advisors.

Professor Giacomo Becattini is one of the most prominent Italian economists who have revitalized and elaborated Alfred Marshalls' century-old idea of the advantages of the geographical agglomeration of specialized small firms. In his many papers, articles and books on this topic Prof. Becattini has been widening the analysis of purely economic effects of agglomeration to a much broader perspective, including the social, cultural and institutional foundations of local industrial growth, strengthening the socio-economic and territorial dimension of the concept and introducing the idea of embeddedness as a key analytical concept in understanding industrial districts. The Italian experience of industrial districts is globally recognized as one of the most important reference model for regional development and regional competitiveness policies.

Here you can access the video on google video and download the transcript of the interview , one of his latest public intervention.