A região de aprendizagem como temática e ângulo de observação [The learning region as a theme and vantage point]

The challenges related to the recent economic changes increased the importance of learning and innovation to both industrial performance and economic development. Indeed, in different contexts policies have become more and more concerned with learning and innovation, seen as collective and interactive processes. The notion of learning region, by which the issue of territorial embeddedness of the processes of institutionally organized collective learning is addressed, emerges as an important theme in the present debate on innovation and competitiveness. This article focuses the idea of learning region, outlined in the literature based on the observation of successful cases in the core of world capitalism, taking it as a sort of guide for examining the experiences of two industrial clusters in Santa Catarina: the Medium Itajaí Valley, a well known area of textile and clothing production, and the southern part of this state, one of the most important ceramics producing areas in the whole country.