The Olivettian oeuvre and the Italian school of local development

This study aims at exploring the relationships, largely unexplored, connecting Adriano Olivetti's thought to the Italian local development "school" and specifically to Giorgio Fuà's and Giacomo Becattini's works. As a matter of fact, the Olivettian oeuvre shows a true and not negligible common ground with both Becattini's socio-communitarian approach and Fuà's emphasis on the quality of entrepreneurial capabilities in triggering processes of local and industrial development. Focusing on Olivetti's political, social, economic thought as a basis for his conception and action about the communitarian enterprise and the community, we will come to discuss the intersections with a few key concepts in Fuà and Becattini on local development and systems of SMEs. We will conclude with some suggestions on contemporary research on local development.