The core in the periphery? The cluster organisation as the central node in the Apulian aerospace district

Cluster policy is often ineffective in peripheral regions with weak institutions and significant barriers to knowledge production and exchange. Nonetheless, many peripheral regions have pursued such policies in recent years, an example being technology districts in southern Italy. This paper examines one such district – the aerospace district in Apulia – where policy has focused on indirect support for networking through coordination. This has led to a substantial increase in knowledge exchange within the district, but also to a heavy dependence on the cluster organization itself as the key actor in the knowledge-exchange network.