The Genesis of the High Technology Milieu: A Study in Complexity

Elizabeth Garnsey

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 1998, vol. 22, issue 3, 361-377

Abstract: This paper addresses the question of ‘how and why some places develop expanding industrial complexes while others move along other trajectories’, with reference to localized high technology enterprise. It is argued that concern with local resource endowments has led to the neglect of chance events and cumulative processes, key features of path dependence. The emerging industrial ensemble can be conceived as a complex open system, characterized by interdependent activities, sensitive to initial conditions and subject to irreversibilities. In such systems, the relationship between initial conditions and subsequent innovative developments is unpredictable, though common dynamic processes can be detected. The systems approach can address the multidisciplinary features of the innovative milieu, where economic, cultural and political dimensions form an interdependent whole. Cet article explore ‘comment et pourquoi certains endroits développent des ensembles industriels grandissants alors que d’autres suivent des trajectoires différentes’ en ce qui concerne les entreprises locales de technologie de pointe. Je soutiens qu’un intérêt pour les dotations des ressources locales a conduit à négliger les événements dus au hasard et les processus cumulatifs, éléments centraux de la dépendance du trajectoire. Les ensembles industriels naissants peuvent être vus comme des sytèmes ouverts complexes, caractérisés par des activités interdépendantes, sensibles aux conditions initiales et soumis à des irrévocabilités. Dans de tels systèmes, la relation entre les conditions initiales et les développements innovatifs subséquents est imprévisible, bien que des processus dynamiques communs puissent être détectés. L’approche systémique est appropriée aux éléments multidisciplinaires du milieu innovatif où les dimensions économique, culturelle et politique forment un tout interdépendant.

Date: 1998
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