Abstract

Industrial clusters have a prominent role in the industrial, innovation system and territorial development of many developed and emerging countries, including BRICS (namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Therefore, industrial clusters represent an important variable in assessing their global industrial competitiveness and they play a relevant role not only in terms of GDP growth but also in employment creation and poverty reduction, becoming potential drivers for the country's development. The development process of cluster formation is highly complex depending on many factors at local, meso and macro levels. In order to explore such complexity, this paper analyses the process of cluster formation of BRICS countries from a sustainable human development perspective. The paper finds that the patterns of industrial cluster development among the countries are highly differentiated mainly reflecting their institutional context. In addition, it shows that even very «successful» industrial cluster with good economic performances can hide low social development and environmental degradation. This has important implications from a Sustainable Human Development Perspective.