Districts industriels : du concept à l'histoire. Les termes du débat

During the 70?s, the outstanding achievement of the ?Third Italy? led to the rehabilitation of the Marshallian concept of industrial district and to a growing number of studies on the productive system whose development can be mostly explained by the geographical concentration of activities. At first an exclusive sociologists? and economists? concern, it gradually became the concern of other social sciences, among which History. However promising and stimulating this approach may be, it remains sketchy and blurred, and History hasn?t been able to play its part fully yet because the shift from concept to history raises a number of theoretical, methodological and empirical issues. This article aims at clarifying the contents of the concept, depicting how it was elaborated and how it expanded, and to ponder on its usefulness to historical research. Classification JEL : L, R1, L6, D8, K3, J4, D2, J5, J3, L1