Does the “Cluster” Concept Address Equity?

A new report, Just Clusters: Economic Development Strategies that Reach More People and Places, from Regional Technology Strategies, Inc. (RTS) finds that while cluster-based economic development strategies have the potential to expand opportunities for disadvantaged populations and rural regions, most current cluster strategies do not pay attention to equity issues. The project was made possible through a grant from the Ford Foundation.

Just Clusters stems from a question put to almost two dozen leading cluster experts: “Are clusters equitable and just tools for economic development or do they skew resources to those who are already better off?” Clusters refer to the competitive advantages that firms acquire when there are significant concentrations of other similar or related and interdependent businesses in a geographic region.

The collaborative result of a two-day meeting of 23 practitioners, researchers and policy makers, the report looks at the implications of cluster strategies for low- and middle- income people, economically distressed urban and rural places, and small enterprises.

Participants concluded there are considerable barriers to making clusters more inclusive, including inadequate skills, distance, exclusion from social networks, and lack of access to capital. The report suggests actions to overcome such obstacles and to shift outcomes toward people, places and firms left behind in last decade’s economic growth. Possible actions are, for example, qualifying more disadvantaged people for employment in a cluster’s firms through community colleges or engaging organizations that support firms’ modernization and innovation in activities that broaden their impact.

Just Clusters concludes that cluster strategies can encompass equity concerns, but only when the intent is there from the start.  The simple presence of clusters only provides limited promise for disadvantaged regions. Clusters can provide a means for future success of a less fortunate area; however, this will not occur without a concentrated effort. The key is to “figure out how to best use the cluster framework to get more people onto and up career ladders, small firms on growth paths, and isolated places into successful regional production systems.”

Just Clusters can be downloaded at: http://www.rtsinc.org/whatsnew.html