Academic interest in Local Productive Systems (LPS) is on the rise. So are public policies specifically directed to such systems, which may be defined as a territorial agglomeration of interacting economic, social and political actors focused on a specific set of economic activities. Part of...

The article argues that theories of economic development are metaphors which have a strong mythical content, albeit unacknowledged by social scientists. The policies derived from such theories have two agendas: a 'positive' agenda that states which problems should be tackled and how; and a...