The Geographic Cluster: A Historical Review

Abstract

The notion of the cluster has become a highly interdisciplinary project, although it remains intrinsic to human and more specifically economic geography as a discipline. This article reviews the concept of the cluster from its origin in the work of Alfred Marshall and the industrial district, and how it has come to inform much subsequent thinking. Despite the strong foundation of Marshall's work, the contemporary cluster has become repopularised through the work of Michael Porter whose brand of cluster has rejuvenated interest in the cluster by policymakers and academics alike. However, Porter's work has also created a more critical revival of the cluster that has seen the concept examined in terms of innovation systems and other non-Porterian alternatives. The article reviews these alternatives in terms of what Benneworth and Henry (2004) term a ‘multiperspectival approach’, and argues the strength of the cluster concept to be as a dynamics and metaphorical construct rather than as a scientifically analysable concept per se.