Futures of Work: Perspectives from the Maker Movement

The work presented in this report attempts to explore other realms about the future(s) of work beyond the strongly driven narrative of digital transformation. We have addressed one particular grassroots community, the Maker Movement, which is de facto enabling new models of education, collaborative work, and manufacture. Movements like the Maker Movement can be inspirational of policy making in areas of great complexity and uncertainties as work, employment, jobs are. We suggest that debates about futures of work need to mobilise the imagination, insights and expectations of wide ranges of society. Policy making should be nurturing necessary studies, experiments and conversations until some resilient ideas are found.JRC.I.2-Foresight, Behavioural Insights and Design for Polic

FabLabs: The Road to Distributed and Sustainable Technological Training through Digital Manufacturing

The fast expansion of digital culture has fostered the creation of makerspaces such as fabrication laboratories (FabLabs) that, thanks to their flexibility and their use of open source tools, strengthen the sense of community and produce true transformations within those communities. Despite their relevance, few studies focus on the characterization of these environments. This paper presents the results of the FabLab Global Survey, aimed at understanding the characteristics of FabLabs through the visions of their managers, or "FabManagers". The results show an enormous diversity of approaches within the FabLab movement that cannot be extrapolated to a single characteristic element, but that allow its global compression. Their properties reveal them as transforming elements that eliminate technological and cultural barriers, empowering user communities and optimizing learning processes regarding digital technology. FabLab activities allow not only economic and industrial development thanks to innovative projects, but also a digital technology approach for young students and the inclusion of minorities at risk, thus eliminating old cultural and social barriers

Cultural and creative collaborative spaces in the revitalization of urban neighborhoods

In recent decades, our cities have been facing profound challenges arising from technological innovations and the intensification of global dynamics. In particular, the transition to a service economy and the increase in flexible forms of work; the emergence of cognitive-cultural capitalism (Scott 2008) due to the importance of knowledge, creativity, and innovation; impose new questions and rethink urban governance. Since the 1980s, governments have actively promoted the integration of cultural and urban policies into regeneration programs to promote local identity and distinctiveness, enhance the competitiveness and socio-economic development of territories. Over time, urban renewal strategies - supported by local authorities, private investors and/or public-private partnerships - have integrated not only the rehabilitation of deactivated spaces for socio-cultural activities but increasingly to focus on the potential of creative industries as levers for the renewal of disadvantaged or neglected areas. In addition, there is a growing interest in the people who work in this cultural and creative area as a catalyst for change and innovation. Many of them value lifestyles that provide work-life balance with paid work with non-profit activities. They also seek collaborative spaces (incubators, coworking, fab labs, maker spaces, etc.) that provide flexible and inspiring work experiences, sharing knowledge and leisure opportunities and business. These collaborative spaces, with different characteristics, which have been installed in various cities, tend to bring new users, behaviors, and investments. Many studies refer to their ability to contribute to the improvement of public space, (re)vitalization of socioeconomic activities, heritage conservation, as well as community empowerment and well-being. However, they can also promote art washing, real estate speculation, and gentrification processes and other problems. Thus, this working paper is part of ongoing research that tries to identify and understand these dynamics used in the regeneration of the territories through the creation of cultural and creative spaces of collaboration and co-creation as innovative ecosystems which are mobilized and shaped by the complex intertwining relations of production, social life, and the urban environment. After reviewing some of the main issues discussed in the literature, we purpose a methodological approach and some illustrative case studies that will be explored in the research and that can contribute for a better understanding of the complexity of these urban trends.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ethnographies of Collaborative Economies across Europe

“Sharing economy” and “collaborative economy” refer to a proliferation of initiatives, business models, digital platforms and forms of work that characterise contemporary life: from community-led initiatives and activist campaigns, to the impact of global sharing platforms in contexts such as network hospitality, transportation, etc. Sharing the common lens of ethnographic methods, this book presents in-depth examinations of collaborative economy phenomena. The book combines qualitative research and ethnographic methodology with a range of different collaborative economy case studies and topics across Europe. It uniquely offers a truly interdisciplinary approach. It emerges from a unique, long-term, multinational, cross-European collaboration between researchers from various disciplines (e.g., sociology, anthropology, geography, business studies, law, computing, information systems), career stages, and epistemological backgrounds, brought together by a shared research interest in the collaborative economy. This book is a further contribution to the in-depth qualitative understanding of the complexities of the collaborative economy phenomenon. These rich accounts contribute to the painting of a complex landscape that spans several countries and regions, and diverse political, cultural, and organisational backdrops. This book also offers important reflections on the role of ethnographic researchers, and on their stance and outlook, that are of paramount interest across the disciplines involved in collaborative economy research

Opening digital fabrication: transforming TechKnowledgies

This study analyses the field of open digital fabrication where novel digital capabilities and hopes for social transformation have merged to form arrangements that seek to democratise knowledge and technology through collaboration. Through qualitative social science the study analyses FabLabs and open source technologies and the respective collective procedures that produce and organise technology and knowledge that redefine the entanglement of our society and its technologies

Grassroots Innovation Movements

Innovation is increasingly invoked by policy elites and business leaders as vital for tackling global challenges like sustainable development. Often overlooked, however, is the fact that networks of community groups, activists, and researchers have been innovating grassroots solutions for social justice and environmental sustainability for decades. Unencumbered by disciplinary boundaries, policy silos, or institutional logics, these ‘grassroots innovation movements’ identify issues and questions neglected by formal science, technology and innovation organizations. Grassroots solutions arise in unconventional settings through unusual combinations of people, ideas and tools. This book examines six diverse grassroots innovation movements in India, South America and Europe, situating them in their particular dynamic historical contexts. Analysis explains why each movement frames innovation and development differently, resulting in a variety of strategies. The book explores the spaces where each of these movements have grown, or attempted to do so. It critically examines the pathways they have developed for grassroots innovation and the challenges and limitations confronting their approaches. With mounting pressure for social justice in an increasingly unequal world, policy makers are exploring how to foster more inclusive innovation. In this context grassroots experiences take on added significance. This book provides timely and relevant ideas, analysis and recommendations for activists, policy-makers, students and scholars interested in encounters between innovation, development and social movements