From ugly ducklings to beautiful swans? The role of local public intermediaries in the revival of the Daegu textile industry

RIS scholarship has paid less attention to how local-based public institutions have been involved in the restructuring process of older industrial regions. In particular, there is a paucity of applications of RIS ideas to the subject of industrial change in old industrial regions in the newly industrialising economies where there remains a legacy of developmentalism even after a period of catching-up. In this paper, we offer an empirical contribution on these neglected issues when focusing on the role of public intermediaries in the revitalisation of the Daegu textile industry in South Korea. Our findings offer not only an update on previous studies but also indicate how local public intermediaries have themselves evolved and have proved pivotal in industry upgrading. The broader implication of this research is that the legacies of developmental state policies and institutions remain strong and present more of a basis for change than is assumed in the literature on the post- or neo-developmental state.