本稿は，岡山大学経済学部と(財)岡山経済研究所の共同研究プロジェクトの一環として行われた調査研究の報告書に加筆修正を加えたものである。その報告書は，会員組織である岡山経済研究所の会員向け冊子として配布される予定であり，それとは別に経営学などの研究者に向けて成果を公表することが，本稿の目的となっている。紙幅の制約上，いくつかの独立した論考としての体裁をとりながら連続して掲載する予定であり，その構成は以下の通りである。

This research is a field study on the production−distribution network of denim jeans in the Setouchi district, being faced with the recent global competitive pressures. It has long been said that the textile and apparel industries in developed countries have been challenged by those developing economies that enjoy the advantages of low labor costs. The Setouchi district, which have had a long tradition of the industries, was no exception. It suffered a serious recession during the 1990s and 2000s and have lost their major customer bases. Amongst them, however, the denim jeans industry could survive the period by handling the negative impact from abroad in its own way. Since the denim jeans industry first appeared in Japan in the 1960s, the district has established itself as the center of the industry and long sustained its better competitive positions. It seems true that successful manufacturers not only pass their traditional production capabilities to younger generations but also promote technical evolution to make the new capabilities fit into the new market conditions, which are more quality oriented, fragmented and unstable. We conduct a field research to illuminate to what extent the Setouchi district has been successful in the denim jeans production and distribution and how it has been achieved. This paper, which is a part of the report of our whole research, especially attempts to suggest a potential approach to the industry, which owes a lot to a new philosophical movement called ‘communities of practice.’ We suggest that our new approach should be more appropriate than conventional approaches in that it can firstly explain the psychological climates of the Setouchi district which are characteristically individualistic. Secondly, although local economies were previously understood to be facilitated by the network based succession and diffusion of technical and commercial knowledge, it seems that manufacturers’ learning behaviors in this district tend to rely more on the independent trial and error method.