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In Brazil since the 2000s, increasing interest in industrial clusters designed as localized productive systems has been observed. These are similar to French localized production systems, especially due to former DATAR initiatives in the late 20th century. While the number of Brazilian studies of such systems has been increasing, DATAR (now DIACT) focused especially on competitiveness poles. Will Brazilian scholars and practitioners show interest in this new concept by giving up their interest in localized productive systems? If so, it would mean that this infatuation for localized systems was above all a fad. However, given the specific situation of a country such as Brazil, it is important to verify the extent to which the concept of the industrial cluster was adapted, here more than in many industrial countries, to the country's realities. The purpose of this paper is to call into question the concept of the industrial cluster as discussed in the international and Brazilian literature and to present our own field work in order to evaluate the relevance and importance of localized productive systems in the regional development policies that are being put forward in various Brazilian states.