Abstract
The process of globalization defines new frontiers, giving more importance to the territory. In the context of a rapidly changing international environment it is of no small importance to ask questions about the present situations in the bordering regions, their foreseeable evolution, both short‐ and long‐term, and the economic and social consequences likely to result, considering their geographical and demographic situation, as well as their structures of activity. The redrawing of old national territories no longer seems to be the product of diplomacy and, in particular, wars; henceforth, it would appear to depend upon industrial economics. This is especially significant in the case of “Neisse,” the Euroregion located on Polish–Czech–German borders. Here is the chance to revive a localized productive system that would give life to new forms of interregional cooperation. In this article I reflect on the relevance of the Marshallian district concept in the analysis of this interregional cooperation. The Marshallian industrial district is based on the external economies of agglomerations and the economics of urbanization, and this kind of development we can see today in Poland. The study of localized productive systems must be thorough, multidisciplinary, and carried out through fieldwork. The aim is to understand how work, relationships, and culture as well as material and immaterial infrastructures, which give a place for original identity within the international division of labor, regenerate in locally coherent forms. A production system grouped together on a spatial level and integrated company networks at the regional level could serve to create local hubs of competition in Central and Eastern Europe. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 15: 109–126, 2005.