Prologue
By Emeritus Professor Giacomo Becattini
In a world in which we constantly question what determines our well-being and happiness, the fundamental intuition is that the economy does not simply regard minimizing the production cost of goods or maximizing the profits.
Rather, we are required to consider more explicitly the maximization of human satisfaction, derived from the utilization and consumption of goods and services, and the enjoyment of different kinds of social relations.The appropriate laws and institutions for governing the market that enable humankind to live and grow have always been at the heart of economic theory. The general theory of social value therefore falls outside the sphere of price and production costs: It is not limited to the minimization of production costs or the price of a certain commodity, or a basket of goods. Instead, it involves the optimal allocation - even in spatial terms - of human beings, through the formation of social groups that share values and aspirations in any given geographical context.
Every person, in fact, in interpreting his or her own skills and preferences, is embedded in (or compelled to move in search of) a physical and social place believed to offer the utmost chance of a better life or the greatest satisfaction from recreation, industrial activities and the communities they interact with - first of all, the family - and the environment that stimulates them. From a collective perspective, each localized human community pursues the objective of satisfying their collective needs and aspirations, given the available natural, infrastructural and human resources at their disposal. This collective satisfaction in turn provides a substantial contribution to global development, conceived as human flourishing. This means, of course, that the deus agitans of the system of relationships and processes that further well-being and happiness lies in real flesh-and-blood human beings belonging to local relational systems - the ordinary entrepreneurs, workers, civil officers and citizens.
In particular, the manner in which these agents behave as actors of change regarding the values, knowledge, behaviours and institutions of the different social structures they belong to is crucial. In other words, the minimal unit - let's say the atom - entrenched within this perspective is not the economic or social agent, but rather the system of relations with the "rest of the world” that emanates from these agents. The idea of a clear-cut separation between the individual and the firm from their multiple and various contexts, in itself, is neither feasible nor capable of embracing the complexity of the problems - especially social problems - we are facing. Globalization processes have, in fact, introduced increasing complexity in the relations between agents and among local development systems, connecting to a greater extent the well-being of individuals, businesses and communities to a system of multilevel relationships, both within and across territories.For instance, if we focus our attention on enterprises, it seems undeniable that each firm is not simply in itself strong or weak, fragile or solid, but it is largely in the way it interacts with its diverse settings: local, national, global, sectoral, lobby networks, inter alia.
In this scenario, firms that are embedded in a specific local development system (primarily district firms) derive their competitive advantage not only from the particular network of relations - either contractual or otherwise - through which they interact with other economic agents but also from the way in which local values, knowledge, behaviours and institutions characterizing the surrounding community (or communities) react to technology, knowledge and market needs.
The district itself is a hub of the kaleidoscope of ambitions and frustrations, relations of competition, emulation and collaboration, human capacities and material conditions that emerged over the centuries and permeate the local communities behind it, thus gradually creating complementarity between forma mentis and productive structure.
The crucial feature, in my view, shaping the potential linkage between this competitive advantage and collective well-being is the nature of the district as an eco-system, representing a productive and self-educational structure in continuous evolution. If values, knowledge, behaviours and institutions are rigid or exclusively determined by external forces, the district would have no chance to develop in a rapidly changing world, as the specific source of its competitive advantage would rapidly expire or spiral out of control. If, on the other hand, the heritage of values, knowledge, behaviours and institutions matured in the past evolve along with functional market changes without producing social fractures or forms of exclusion, then the district would more likely follow the high road to development. In this scenario, the increase of economic wealth would go hand in hand with an increase in human well-being in a given place.
As modern local development systems face complex processes at multiple levels, the set of actors and stakeholders operating in (or affecting) a given territory - in terms of its various sectors and social groups and in view of diffused governance - are obliged to penalize disruptive behaviours of competitive advantage and reward those patterns favouring district development. In other words, this would not only ensure the resilience of the local eco-system in the face of changing internal and external conditions but also reinforce the capacities of continuous learning and anticipation of evolutionary trajectories, in order to constantly maintain an enabling environment for the promotion of collective well-being.
It cannot be denied that this world appears increasingly unlikely in the face of obstacles such as increases in the accumulation of wealth and the consolidation of decision-making power within a few hands. Far from it, in fact! Nonetheless, once clarified its conceptual feasibility, it is worthwhile - and more viable - to relentlessly pursue it.