New configurations of the interface between innovation and urban spatial agglomeration: the localized industrial systems (lis) of the clothing in Fortaleza/Brazil

Abstract

The paper seeks to interpret the interface between innovation, industry and urban business agglomeration, by trying to understand how local/regional entrepreneurs and social agents use the forces of agglomeration to organize productive activities with a view to achieving greater competitiveness and strategic advantages. There are many territorial manifestations that materialize from this new reality and the text seeks to propose a reading of its characteristics based on what we call "productive spatial configurations", which represent the specific functioning of a certain innovative production process and its territorial impact. To illustrate this approach, we take as an example a case study that illustrates how productive spatial configurations manifest themselves through the revitalization of an industrial economy that incorporates innovative efforts, whether technological, process or organizational. This is the localized industrial system (LIS) of clothing and apparel in Fortaleza, Cear\'a state, Brazil, which reveals an industrial experience of resistance with significant organizational innovation in the production and distribution processes of clothing. The main objective of the proposal is to organize theoretical and empirical tools that will allow us to read the combination of economic, social and political variables in spaces where collaborative networks of companies, service centers and public institutions flourish, in the context of various industrial production processes. This could point to the progress we need to overcome the many false controversies on the subject.