• Journal of the Korean Academic Society of Industrial Cluster
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2008

Despite growing recognition of the significance of industrial clusters to regional economic success, there has been only limited attention paid to the effectiveness of cluster policies in old industrial regions. Many of these regions still retain functioning industrial clusters, or have clusters which are adopting new strategies as part of a process of regeneration. This paper argues that the effectiveness of cluster policies in old industrial regions depends upon the extent to which they recognise the evolutionary nature of industrial clusters. It reviews the literature on the transformation of old industrial regions in Europe, and examines how cluster policies have risen to prominence as a policy tool. These strands ate brought together in an exploration of cluster policies in old industrial regions. A brief case study is presented of the evolution of the steel industry supply chain in north east England. The conclusions focus upon the data requirements that form a starting point for informed policy intervention into presses of cluster evolution.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.409-424
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• 2018

Since the 1950s, many of the traditional industrial cities of advanced economies in Europe and North America were affected by a series of de-industrialization. The de-industrialization process, characterized by company shut-downs and massive lay-offs, has resulted in high unemployment rates and massive redundancies in physical infrastructure. Since the 1980s, many of the old industrial cities have attempted to overcome such problems. However, it has been found that not many of the cities are found to be successful. The City of Dortmund, one of the core cities of the large German industrial conurbation of the past, the Ruhr, is found to be an exceptional case demonstrating a clear success in overcoming deindustrialization problems. The City in fact strategically pursued transforming backbone of its economy from steel-making, coal-mining and beer-brewery to high-technology and future-oriented industries, based on microsystems, biomedical, electronic logistics and information technology. This paper attempts to analyse the processes and outcomes of transforming Dortmund beginning from the 1980s to articulate the roles of the agencies contributing to the success.