Co-working Spaces in Milan: Location Patterns and Urban Effects

Abstract

The present paper investigates the location patterns and the effects coworking spaces generate on the urban context, issues that have been neglected by the existing literature. The focus is on Milan, the core of the Italian knowledge-based, creative, digital, and sharing economy, and the city hosting the largest number of coworking spaces in Italy. The paper addresses three main questions: (1) Where are the main locations of coworking spaces in Milan? (2) Are there any transformative effects of coworking spaces, respectively at the urban scale and at the very local scale?(3) What are their impacts in terms of spatial transformation and in terms of innovation in practices (for instance, work, leisure, or culture)? Desk research showed that location patterns of coworking spaces resemble those of service industries in urban areas, with a propinquity to the so-called "creative clusters." Field research shed light on urban effects, such as the participation of workers in coworking spaces in local community initiatives, their contribution to urban revitalization trends, and micro-scale physical transformations. The paper, therefore, helps to fill the gap in the literature about the location patterns of these new working spaces and their urban effects at different scales, both in terms of urban spaces and practices.

Coworking Spaces in the Global South: Local Articulations and Imaginaries

“…Despite the optimism surrounding coworking spaces, some scholars have challenged the predominantly uncritical framing of these spaces (see Avdikos and Kalogeresis, 2016;Brown, 2017;de Peuter et al, 2017;Gandini, 2015;Hong, 2017;Mariotti et al, 2017;Merkel, 2018;Roderick, 2016). As argued by their studies, the notion of coworking spaces as sites for serendipity production becomes questionable in light of evidence that encounters do not always happen organically nor are spontaneous interactions a common feature of coworking (Akhavan et al, 2018;Brown, 2017;Mariotti et al, 2017). Researchers have attributed this to the fact that coworking spaces attract a heady mix of strangers with varying levels of commitment, working attitudes, and experiences which may render interactions superficial, fleeting, and impermanent (Grugulis and Stoyanova, 2011).…”

“…Apart from highlighting the analogy between coworking spaces and the problematic conditions of contemporary knowledge work, there also exists a growing concern about the tendency of coworking spaces to be mere enclaves for elite, high-skilled workers which may in turn deepen "class and racial divides" (Mariotti et al, 2017;Brown, 2017:116;Gandini, 2015).…”

“…[ Table 1 Meanwhile, a model which reflects the growing trend among coworking spaces in the Global North to inhabit abandoned locations, has emerged in the form of First Coworking Community (Mariotti et al, 2017). This coworking space is housed in a heritage district which local creative firms and art collectives are seeking to revive.…”

“…Appearing to substantiate the "celebratory framework" that largely characterizes how coworking spaces are perceived in the mainstream (Gandini, 2015:193), scholarly research have explored the capacity of these spaces to stimulate innovations from the ground up (Wang and Loo, 2017), impact urban environments (Armondi and Di Vita, 2017;Mariotti et al, 2017), foster serendipitous and productive encounters among independent professionals and entrepreneurs (Moriset, 2013), and serve as sites for support for independent workers through the facilitation of knowledge transfer, collaborative problem solving, and companionship (Mariotti et al, 2017;Gerdenitsch et al, 2015;Spinuzzi, 2012;Waters-Lynch and Potts, 2017). Some researchers have also begun to assess the potential of coworking spaces to cultivate "progressive forms of work relations and collective political action" (Merkel, 2018:15;de Peuter et al, 2017).…”

The time varying network of urban space uses in Milan

“…The social relevance of NILs have been once again confirmed since one of the five objectives of 2019 PGT is to enhance them through the regeneration of their public spaces, as a first step towards a new polycentric city model. Given their importance in Milan urban planning, we adopted NILs as units in the analysis we performed, as also done in other studies on this city (Arnaboldi et al 2017;Mariotti et al 2017Mariotti et al , 2018.…”