Abstract
Cluster research and the spatial distribution of industry are two enduring themes in present-day economic geography. These two strands, however, seldom come together in a systematic fashion. In part this follows from research strategies that focus on the one or the other, but also because until rather recently there has been a focus on successful cases at their height of prominence. Lately, both low-tech and declining clusters and industrial districts have come more to the fore, but mature industries that tend to occupy peripheral location are yet to be integrated into this line of research. Focusing on changes in the distribution of Swedish furniture industry, from its beginnings to the present, we ask whether the locational patterns of industries that are not to be found in the main agglomerations are subject to the same forces agglomeration or dispersal through filtering and suburbanisation as are secondary and tertiary activities that tend to agglomerate and cluster in the core. The results, as read off the changing pattern of distribution of the furniture industry over time, indicate that this is indeed the case.