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Journal of Economic Geography Advance Access published online on October 23, 2009
Journal of Economic Geography, doi:10.1093/jeg/lbp053
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Networks of learning within the English wine industry

Simon Turner*

*Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK. email <simon.turner{at}lshtm.ac.uk>

JEL classifications: L14, L22, O18, O32

The literature on industrial districts suggests that spatial proximity supports interfirm learning and is therefore a source of competitive advantage. Although ‘territorial’ accounts have highlighted the informal means through which firms access knowledge, localised perspectives have received criticism from a number of quarters. This article adopts a ‘relational’ perspective centred on the firm and explores the role of both formal and informal networks of learning using empirical evidence from the English wine industry of southern England. The findings suggest that the development of formal interfirm arrangements and non-local knowledge links by leading firms is displacing the extant communitarian logic of learning within the industry. Implications for the literature on industrial districts are discussed.

Keywords: Interfirm networks, industrial districts, communities of practice, English wine
Date submitted: 23 December 2008     Date accepted: 21 September 2009


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