Clusters in formation in a deindustrialized area: urban regeneration and structural change in Porto Marghera (Venice)
ISSN: 1059-5422
Article publication date: 14 May 2020
Issue publication date: 19 June 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a comprehensive vision of the formation of intra-metropolitan clusters triggered by the deindustrialization of an urban area, namely, the district of Porto Marghera in the metropolitan area of Venice and propose possible regeneration scenarios based on intra-metropolitan clustering.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a multi-disciplinary approach and relies on both descriptive and qualitative evidence to show the economic transition occurred in the area of Porto Marghera in recent years.
Findings
Evidence shows the rise of two potential clusters in the KIBS and the creative industries in a well-delimited fringe area placed at the boundary between the urban centre and the core of the deindustrialized zone. Such clustering processes have been, however, characterized by two different and in some way alternative paths. The former stems from the combination of two autonomous entrepreneurial ideas that complemented one to each other. The latter relies on university-industry collaboration and on the presence of places of informal exchanges that proved to support personal networking, knowledge exchange and business opportunities.
Research limitations/implications
This paper suggests that local development policies could leverage on the presence of social entrepreneurs to substitute the creation of amenities and the provision of public goods in fragile territories.
Originality/value
This paper shows that, in presence of specific spatial conditions, deindustrialization can stimulate the formation of new intra-metropolitan through both top-down and bottom-up agglomeration process.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research has been funded by the Veneto Region (European Social Fund Project N. 2122-18-2216-2016) and coordinated by Prof. Maria Chiara Tosi (Iuav University of Venice) with the title: “Strategies for urban regeneration, economic reactivation and social innovation. The case of Mestre-Marghera”. We thank the other participants in the research project, Prof. Michelangelo Savino (University of Padua), Prof. Alessandro Casellato (Ca’ Foscari Universtity of Venice), Prof. Agostino Cappelli (Iuav University of Venice), and Dr. Giulia Gnola (Iuav University of Venice). We also thank the guest editors of this special issue, Prof. Roberto Antonietti and Prof. Enrico Carlet, and two anonymous reviewers for the useful comments. A previous version of this paper has been presented and discussed at the II International Workshop on “Rethinking clusters: the local and global scale of sustainability transitions” held in Padua on May, 15-17, 2009. Usual discalimers apply.
Citation
Bonello, V., Faraone, C., Gambarotto, F., Nicoletto, L. and Pedrini, G. (2020), "Clusters in formation in a deindustrialized area: urban regeneration and structural change in Porto Marghera (Venice)", Competitiveness Review, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 417-436. https://doi.org/10.1108/CR-12-2019-0129
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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