Areas of large enterprise and industrial districts in the development of post-war Italy: A preliminary survey

Our aim in this article is to lay some statistical and theoretical foundations for an understanding of Italian post-war economic growth, by devoting special attention to what has happened in the hundred different “Italies” that go to make up the mosaic of this country. We have concentrated our analysis on comparing “areas of large enterprise” with “industrial districts” through a distinction between district provinces (IDPs), large enterprise provinces (LEPs) and other provinces (OPs). We investigate manufacturing industry by means of in depth analyses of trends in employment and value added, as well as through breakdowns of export flows and income and prosperity levels. Since the end of World War II it appears that Italian economic growth has largely been formed by the constant, massive flow of exports of personal and household goods and light mechanically-engineered products, that a sizeable flow of exports is attributable to growth in the industrial districts, and that although the income gap between the different parts of the country has not been eliminated, growth by the industrial districts and the policy of industrialization in Southern Italy have together engineered a major territorial dispersion of both light and heavy industry. However, heavy industry and high-tech large Italian companies have found increasing difficulties and even lost many of the positions they once held. Our survey indicates that a policy for industrial development in Italy must take account of the weakness of the heavy industry sector along with the features and requirements of industrial districts.     

The Italian industrial districts and the crisis of the cooperative form: Part I

The theory of the industrial districts—spatial clusters of mutually supporting, mostly small and medium‐sized, flexibly specialized enterprises, held together by virtue of their deep local embedding and relations of trust—is now a well‐developed part of regional planning doctrine and folklore. The canonical cases are those located in the so‐called Third Italy’. In Part I of this paper, I review the theory, and present the first of three case studies, each of which challenges one or another fundamental element of the district model. Here, I consider evidence of penetration into the Emilian food packaging machinery district by outside financial interests, which have proceeded to impose hierarchical order on what had previously been more collaborative relations among more or less symmetrically powerful firms. The remaining two cases—on the emergence of vertical production systems in the clothing sector of the Veneto, and on the contradictions of excessive fragmentation in the production of Pratese woolen textiles—will be presented in Part II. These cases do not point to economic failure, per se, but they do (I think) point to an underlying contingency and ultimate instability of the canonical district form.     

Italian religious historiography in the 1990s

Abstract

This article examines Italian religious historiography of the past decade, taking into account the difficulty of this national limitation, given the increasingly frequent arid profitable exchanges among the diverse European traditions. The review first examines some general works and then focuses on certain themes that mark the historiographical trends: ecclesiastical institutions, with particular reference to the period of the Reformation and the Counter‐Reformation; religious complexity, with special reference to heterodox movements, to Jewish culture and to the Islamic presence; and people's religious experiences, with particular emphasis on those of women, in their interaction with both cultural production and social history.     

The Italian industrial districts and the crisis of the cooperative form: Part II

Part I of this paper set out the theory of the industrial district and presented the first of three case studies on the Italian districts, questioning the long‐run stability of these social formations qua locally embedded networks of symmetrically powerful small and medium‐sized cooperative competitors, governed by relations of trust and the sharing of information. That first case examined the emergence of lead firms and hierarchical control within the food packaging machinery industry of Emilia‐Romagna. Here, Part II retraces the transformation of the clothing giant, Benetton, from one among many small subcontractors into the apex of a global production and distribution network not unlike such vertical Japanese keiretsu as Toyota. The third case, on the current competitive crisis of the Pratese system of woolen textile production, emphasizes the contingent character of ‘trusting’ relations among small firms, and exposes the contradictions of excessively fragmented production systems during periods of heightened international competition.     

Urban landscapes and spatial planning in industrial districts: The case of Veneto

A new spatial pattern developed out of a long process of economic, social and physical restructuring which changed Veneto, a poor, mainly agricultural, region into a technologically advanced industrial one, without the major imbalances characterizing other areas. We can assume this new pattern of development as a consequence of a specific growth model. Its typical features are mixture, contemporaneousness, mobility: in such a situation, traditional planning approaches lose most of their validity. Nor is it worth, at this stage, mentioning the economic and environmental reasons that go against such a pattern of scattered growth, since this type of development is the result of an advanced civil and economic condition. This kind of urban development raises a number of new problems: environmental pollution, waste of land, irrational use of the existing infrastructural network. They all require large‐scale planning, which is just what never worked before: the success of the model was largely the result of a set of unplanned policies.     

Japanese archaeology in the 1990s

As scientific archaeology takes hold in Japan, our understanding of the nature and content of Japanese prehistory is changing radically. All of the period boundaries of Japanese prehistory are being rewritten, and many new “archaeologies” are growing up around particular scientific techniques. New publications in English give greater access to archaeological thinking in Japan, while Japanese publications focus on ever-narrowing aspects of prehistoric lifeways. Policy changes are giving archaeologists more access to the imperial tombs, and rescue teams are under less obligation to “save everything” as selective preservation is instituted.     

The Russian Natural Gas Industry in the Mid-1990s

Russia's natural gas industry has been enormously successful over the past quarter century (gas production increased nearly eightfold between 1970 and 1990 and exports outside the territory of the former USSR increased by 33 times), an outward success that appears to have carried over into the difficult transition period of the last five years; output has remained almost stable despite unprecedented declines elsewhere in the economy. Still, in recent years, with the overall economic and political transformation, the situation has become far more unsettled for the industry. This paper identifies and analyzes emerging new forces associated with the economic transition and assesses their likely impact upon the natural gas sector in terms of production trends and related developments in demand (both in terms of internal consumption and exports). 6 tables, 3 figures, 41 references.     

Public Housing and Intergovernmental Reform in the 1990s

The problem identified in this paper is twofold. One is the plight of public housing at the end of the decade, with State programs undermined by Commonwealth funding cuts; the other is the problem of intergovernmental reform and its consequences for discrete areas of policy such as housing. The paper traces developments in CommonwealthState housing arrangements, beginning with the reforms initiated through the Council of Australian Governments through to the still uncertain future of public housing under the Howard government. It examines a number of inquiries into housing and recommendations for reform which served the plans of reformist governments intent on separating out the functional roles and responsibilities of the Commonwealth and the States. In particular, these inquiries advocated an ‘affordability’s benchmark which sought to blur the distinction between public and private rental housing leading, inevitably, to the residualisation of the public housing sector.     

Housing Developments in Moscow in the 1990s

Ownership of an apartment is fast becoming something that most Muscovites will have in common. The privatization of the housing stock has resulted in a highly speculative housing market, and the buying and selling of apartments is slowly altering the social geography of Moscow. The construction of Western-style housing catering to the newly wealthy, while still very limited, is nonetheless symbolic of the changes under way. Control over property, that is, land and buildings, is a highly contentious political issue in Russia. Land represents wealth, and in Moscow there is strong political resistance to allowing private ownership of it. This paper examines some of dimensions of the privatization of housing in particular, and the private and public sector interests involved in property development in general. 7 figures, 2 tables, 16 references.     

The Russian Copper Industry and the Noril'sk Joint-Stock Company in the Mid-1990s

An American resource geographer examines current production in one of the world's major copper industries, with special emphasis on the Noril'sk Nickel Joint-Stock Company—the world's most important producer of platinum-group metals, a leader in nickel and cobalt output, and the leading Russian producer of copper as well. The author documents and analyzes changes in operating procedures and raw material supplies in the industry during the 1990s, focusing on adjustments (such as tolling arrangements and imports of concentrate in the raw-material-deficient Urals and efforts to introduce cost economies in resource-rich Noril'sk) prompted by the severing of industry production linkages of the Soviet period and their partial reintegration under new corporate structures. In addition to restructuring, likened to similar adjustments in the American copper industry, the investigation covers exploration and new mine development at various Russian locations as well as the economics of producing copper and other exportable metals at Arctic production centers. 1 figure, 4 tables, 103 references. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L61, L72, Q32.     

The Pluralist Paradox: The Decline of Economic Interest Groups in Zambia in the 1990s

New democracies attempting to implement political and economic reform simultaneously are considered to face a dilemma, as democratization may undermine economic reform by encouraging political participation and empowering interest groups that are unlikely to benefit from reform. This article compares relations between interest groups and the government under one‐party and multiparty rule in Zambia. Contrary to the assumptions of pluralist theory, the article argues that the influence of interest groups declined as a result of political and economic liberalization. Political liberalization in Zambia has so far resulted in a proliferation of civic associations and a weakening of corporatist links between the state and economic interest groups that had been granted some real influence in the previous authoritarian regime. This ‘pluralist paradox’ has meant, at least in the initial phases of multiparty rule, that interest group resistance has not constituted a significant threat to the sustainability of the reform programme, or to the electoral prospects of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).     

Planning in the 1990s: An international agenda

This paper, originally presented to the AESOP‐ACSP joint conference in Oxford in 1991, stresses that both in Europe and in the US, there is a major difference for planning in the switch from boom to recession. During the 1990s a major challenge will be to find new ways of public‐private partnership in financing new urban infrastructure at a time when developer contributions — a major innovation of the 1980s — have dried up. This particularly applies to the European high‐speed train system — one critical element of which will run through the East Thames Corridor, one of Britain's major urban developments in the coming years. In the US, planners are likely to remain more locally focused, less internationally concerned, than in a Europe in which national barriers are rapidly eroding.     

Changes in the Structure and Distribution of Russian GDP in the 1990s

The author, a noted Japanese observer of Soviet and post-Soviet economic affairs, examines System of National Accounts data for the Russian Federation in order to analyze changes in the structure and distribution of Russian GDP during the six-year period commencing in 1989. The study, based in part on first-hand investigation in Moscow in late 1995 and on hitherto unpublished raw data, represents an initial attempt to examine the methodology underlying the compilation of Russian System of National Accounts statistics, which the Russian Government began to publish only recently. A distinct focus is on GDP by sector of origin and by end use, and on distribution of income. 9 tables, 22 references. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O11, O47, P24.     

20世纪90年代以来的中国宏观经济政策调整

20世纪90年代以来,中国政府的宏观经济政策经历了三次较大的调整。即:1993-1996年政府实行了适度从紧的财政、货币政策,降低高通胀率,使国民经济顺利实现第一次“软着陆”;1998-2002年财政货币政策由适度从紧转向积极有限度扩张,扩大内需,降低高失业率,使国民经济顺利实现第二次“软着陆”;2003年下半年至今政府采取稳健的财政货币政策,加强宏观调控,抑制部分行业投资增长过快,减缓物价上涨压力,对保持经济平稳较快发展而避免大起大落起到了显著的作用。     

20世纪90年代上海产业布局的发展变化

20世纪90年代,着眼于城市功能的重新定位,按照"三、二、一"产业发展新思路,上海的产业布局进行了重大的战略调整,逐步形成了中心城以三产为主、郊区以二产为主的大都市产业布局架构。在各类工业区建设的基础上,上海又突出发展形成了"东南西北"四大产业基地。由此,上海产业布局呈现出一个明显特征,就是第二产业立足于城市功能重塑、提高工业产业的竞争力,通过加强对重大产业项目的"政策聚焦",确立了空间发展的内环整合战略和"东西南北"发展战略,依托都市工业园区和城郊工业区,大大提高了产业聚集度。     

1990年代《美国历史评论》的中国研究

作为美国社会中一个较大的学术群体,美国历史学家的中国研究对于我们了解美国知识分子的中国观具有很大的参照意义。最权威的美国史学刊物——《美国历史评论》——在20世纪90年代所发表的中国研究文章便从一个极为重要的角度展示了美国史学界的中国研究在最近十年的主要线索:中国的传统儒家思维方式左右着中国近现代的社会发展和对外交往。