Death, Tombstones and Clusters: What The Elbert County Granite Monument Industry Can Teach Us About Evolutionary Economic Geography

abstract: One of the American South's oldest industrial clusters is a collection of approximately 100 firms in Elbert County Georgia which mine granite and craft it into burial monuments. Stable demand for the end product as well as the maturity of the cluster makes it an ideal subject for a case study of Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG), specifically, it's temporal framework of Path Dependence. This research uses document reviews, fieldwork and unstructured interviews of industry stakeholders to identify the mechanisms which create transitions between phases of path dependence and strategies used to ward off decline. Using the Elbert County granite cluster as a case study we found several blind spots in EEG. Notably the difficulty of separating cluster change at the firm level from broader macroeconomic and cultural trends. In addition, we identify mechanisms that allow for change in the Elbert region's economy, along with local choices which actively prevent the development of alternative economic specialization and limit the adaptability of the regional economy. We conclude with several recommendations for further research to improve the explanatory power of EEG particularly its ability to explain regional adaptability.