Читать книгу Innovation in Clusters - Estelle Vallier - Страница 19

Innovation clusters are often presented as a new concept marking a break with a past, where companies and laboratories were not grouped together geographically and encouraged to interact. However, when we take a closer look at the history of spatial concentrations of industrial and technological activities, we realize that their contemporary character is not limited to the 21st century. On the contrary, the first examples date back as far as the 19th century. Whether we are talking about purely theoretical concepts or existing configurations, two types of cluster ancestors can be identified: the purely industrial concentrations, that can still be found today, and those that attempt, as early as the middle of the 20th century, to bring science and industry together within technological clusters.