Abstract

This article tries to analyse, with the use of cluster analysis techniques, the relationship between economic growth and the social structure at a regional level in Western Europe. It is argued that the process of socioeconomic restructuring has rendered the connection between growth and the underlying social structure more visible. The results show that this association is not only evident in the so-called "new growth spaces", as pinpointed by most of the literature on structural change, but also in different sets of European regions. Moreover, the results reveal that there is not a unique social structure associated to low or high growth, and that similar levels of economic growth might be achieved under very different social conditions.