Clustering craftwork activities: An approach to promote regional development in a peripheral region of Portugal

Portugal’s globalization and integration had positive repercussionsat the economic and social development level, but simultaneously it evidencedregional asymmetries, demanding new explanatory models to lessen existent disparities.Recent paradigms value the endogenous characteristics of the territorythat appear decisive of the country’s development, including the idea that regionsand local agents should identify new kinds of production organization and relationships,thus enhancing clusters. Given that, in the Beira Interior Norte, craftworkactivities assume a relative economic and social importance, the purpose of thepresent paper is to verify whether this sector acquires the cluster classification inthe region and continuously characterized this classification while potential clusterpromote and develop economic and social factors.