Lo sviluppo locale nel nuovo scenario di integrazione globale di Lanfranco Senn

Local development within a new scenario of global integration

ABSTRACT
The concept and the actual experience of local development has deeply changed in the last two decades. On the one side the globalization process has been enabled by communication technologies that enlarged the economic, political and social connections among territories. Therefore, administrative boundaries of local economies do not coincide any longer with the much wider spatial interdependence.
Location of people and firms is no longer relevant driver of local development and competitiveness as it is, rather, the multiplicity of interconnected networks. From the analytical point of view it is more and more difficult to define and measure what is local.
On the other side we are facing a rapid change of the “mechanisms” that characterize economic and social growth and development: factors such as knowledge, technological innovation, education and labor skills, multilevel governance are only examples of how spatial dynamics has evolved. The paper tries to point out – through a wide literature review and empirical evidence – what are the main new factors that have impacted local development in the global and integrated world.