Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Even further back behind the formal organizations, there is also the nature of
social structure in the country or region. One feature of northeast Italy
commented on by Fukuyama (1995) is the strong social structure in the small
towns of the region. These are characterized by many formal organizations, but
in addition, by many family firms, depending on extended families and able to
share management functions amongst these families. At present, flexible
specialization is observable in various parts of Europe, of which northeast Italy is
one of the best-known examples (Goodman & Bamford 1989). In Italy there are
three styles of industrial development, each typical of one region, so that the name
Third Italy, for example, corresponds to a particular region and its industries.
Italy's first industrial area was the northwest, in and around the nineteenth
century industrial towns of Turin and Milan, which developed their classic mass
production industries from the efforts of private firms such as Fiat at Turin. A
second industrial Italy was created in the Mezzogiorno from the 1950s, where
the state intervened to establish iron and steel plants, petroleum refneries and
petrochemical industries, again in huge plants. What has been called Third Italy
arose in between, in the Emilia Romagna region (
Fig. 3.4
), based on many
industrial firms in the small towns of the region. It is worth noting that the
relevant industries in Third Italy produce items like ceramics, tanned leather and
leather goods, wooden goods like furniture, textiles and clothing. Sforzi's (1989)
map based on functions (specialized light industries) and social structure
(industrial workers and entrepreneurs) is in fact an archipelago of industrial
islands between Turin, Venice and Ancona, mostly set in a sea of rural land.
Each of the towns tends to have one dominant industry, and within that industry
many firms. Carpi, for example, is a major centre for textiles and clothing, and
Figure 3.4
'Third Italy'. The individual small regions (mapped by Sforzi 1989) each have
a dominant economic specialization. They are well defined in terms of journey to work
areas, social structure (family working), and a dominant industry with many small firms.
