1 January 1993
Small Shoemakers and Fordist Giants: Tale of a Supercluster
Published by: IDS
This paper investigates a success story from a country in crisis: the shoe industry of the Sinos Valley in Brazil. The main question is to what extent the industrial district model captures the reality of the Sinos Valley. In many ways it does. The sectoral and geographical concentration of shoe manufacturers is formidable. Even more striking is the depth of the local economy which includes almost the entire range of supply industries and producer services.