Shared Workspace Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This book is intended as a small contribution to the debate on the future of the economic and social system.
We believe in an ideal of social and technological progress that is based on the innovative power of companies.
Local companies, rooted in their territory, known, responsible, able to balance social, environmental and economic sustainability.
We reject the distracting pessimism of those who see a grey future subjugated to global and sprawling multinationals, but also of those who uncritically superimpose the concept of “enterprise” on the stereotyped image of seventeenth-century steelworks and consider every entrepreneur as a ruthless and predatory subject.
The reality is very different and is made up of innovative and environmentally friendly business models, and new sustainable companies led by a new social class that perceives itself as a driving force for social change and takes up the traits of craftspeople, artists, professionals and entrepreneurs, hybridizing and adapting them to the times.
These pioneers of a new way of doing business are among us and successfully lead companies and projects based on concepts of community, social inclusion, professional exchange, mutual help, and responsibility towards the community.
How did we come to these conclusions?
By exploring, touching, and traveling to discover innovative projects.
Between 2012 and 2018 we visited over 120 different workspaces, travelling across 20 countries and three continents in search of successful models, inspirations and experiences.
We made traveling the core of our research, adopting an ethnographic approach and using many theoretical tools from visual anthropology and participatory anthropology.
To some places we went only once, to others we went back regularly. At some we stayed half a day, at others for months at a time.
We drew important ideas and reflections from all of them and to all of them we owe a debt of gratitude.
The result of this research is the Multifactory Model, a model of intervention designed to be a guide for all those who want to create, from scratch, a shared workspace based on concepts of collaboration, mutual aid, social innovation, sustainability, and the free flow of knowledge.