The local scale, from the periphery. An analysis of the agriculture machinery industry in Las Parejas (province of Santa Fe, Argentina), in connection withits its context in the Argentine economy

Abstract

This paper looks into the possibilities that local development strategies inspired in the reality of European countries may be applied to peripheral countries such as Argentina. A difference is made between a global/national context and a local one. the analysis takes into account geographical, sociological and economic discourses which, considering the Italian and French experience, among others, relativize the national scale as the axis of analysis and focus on the local birth as scale of reference. The agricultural machinery businesses of Las Parejas, in the province of Santa Fe, are used to exemplify how a medium-sized city can generate associative projects which help actors to deal with the context, though this is still a business performance and local productive networks life variable.