More than eight years after the outbreak of the economic crisis, EU and neighbouring countries still struggle with its consequences. It has particularly affected young people, with still the highest unemployment rates accoding to Official statistics in 2015 in Greece (49%), Italy (42,7%), Spain (46,2%), and Portugal (32,78%). Young people, are still at risk of becoming a ”lost generation” with limited possibilities to find a job, pay for themselves and start a family. Moreover, young people’s discontent in regard to their exclusion from job market undermines their belief in the capacities of the state as well as the EU in general to satisfy their needs, resulting in growing Euroscepticism and support to extremist political parties. With a lack of response to the challenge of youth unemployment from the State, various initiatives emerged from the bottom. The present project will focus on one of them: coworking approach, taking entrepreneurhip as a successful path out of unemployment, particularly attractive for young people tending to be more creative, dynamic and giving a preference to self-employment. The phenomenon of co-working experienced a boom in the last years all around the world, bringing a new dimension to self-employment and entrepreneurship. In 2015, the number of coworking spaces grew by 36%, reaching around 7,800 coworking spaces worldwide (http://www.deskmag.com/en/first-results-of-the-new-global-coworking-survey-2015-16 ). At the core of coworking is the idea of re-establishing community, increasing collaboration between individuals valorizing complementarity of their capacities and skills. Such an approach facilitates networking and helps sharing experience, enhances productivity, boosts innovation and creativity. The model has become especially popular among the young generation of freelancers, self-entrepreneurs and multi-functional knowledge professionals. Its advantage is twofold: first, it allows to develop professional working while combining various skills and specialization; second, it facilitates the development of a mentality based on the values of inclusion, belief in the strength of collective actions and solidarity. The content and methods used in co-working vary from country to country: in some cases, it is quite a consolidated reality, while in some others it was introduced only recently. In some countries, it takes a shape of business incubator (Development Centre Novo Mesto), in others it is rather a way to promote inclusion of socially disadvantaged categories (Genista Research foundation). Also the type of organizations who host/coordinate the co-working spaces is variegated: in some cases, it is the Municipality/Regional development Agency ruling the co-working space, while in others it is a Research foundation/Hub/Science park. Beside their specific features and assets, the co-working spaces face common challenges that can be better addressed internationally through sharing and comparing, such as: stimulation of youth involvement, financial sustainability and lack of financing, internationalisation of activities, mobilization of local stakeholders support to the activities of co-working space and etc. The present project aims at creating a platform for exchange among the coworking spaces across EU and its neighbours, sharing best practices, working out methods and ideas, putting in synergy various experiences and ensuring support and learning from each other. The project targets the staff who coordinates the coworking spaces in the countries involved, in order to improve their practices, skills and capacities concerning the good management of co-working spaces. The target groups will act as multipliers, sharing the lessons learnt with their peers and colleagues. And, most important outcome of the project, they will be able to provide better support to youth self entrepreneurship and employability, responding to youths’ needs, fostering inclusion and entrepreneurship. The project will additionally raise awareness on this interesting method for supporting youth entrepreneurship and employability among a wider audience, addressing namely youth associations, business organizations, public authorities. This project should be carried out because the co-working is a tool that can bring significant contribution to youth employment, if duly managed. Today, we witness a rich but chaotic panorama of co-working spaces, which is a not yet consolidated method, and whose features vary significantly from country to country. It needs improvement and consolidation: the comparison between different existing best practices is a key element to contribute to improving the existing models, making them suitable and replicable to further realities highlighting the importance of the project at transnational level.
After the outbreak of the economic crisis in 2008, EU still struggles with its consequences. It has particularly affected youth, who are still at risk of becoming a ”lost generation” with limited possibilities. Moreover, young people’s discontent in regard to their exclusion from the job market undermines their belief in the capacities of the state as well as the EU in general to satisfy their needs, resulting in growing Euroscepticism and support to extremist political parties. With a lack of responses to these challenges on a state level, various initiatives emerged from the bottom up. Co-working is one of them, a phenomenon that experienced a boom in the last years, bringing a new dimension to self-employment and entrepreneurship. At the core of coworking is the idea of re-establishing community, increasing collaboration between people, increasing their capacities and skills. Such an approach facilitates networking and helps sharing experience, enhances productivity, boosts innovation and creativity. The advantages of co-working is twofold: first, it allows to develop professional work while combining various skills and specialization; second, it facilitates the development of a mentality based on the values of inclusion, belief in the strength of collective actions and solidarity. INCOME investigated the various methods of co-working and how they can be relevant for social inclusion, culture, business incubation and other fields. INCOME was multi-layer initiative aiming to find new opportunities within the concept of co-working by acting within the intersection of culture and economy, brought on by 9 different partners from March 2017 to February 2019. With its eclectic mix of partners - representing both culture organisations, municipalities, NGOs and business incubators - from around Europe, it explored possibilities to achieve job sustainability and opportunities beyond and across traditional formats, borders and methods. Different European dimensions, both theoretical and geographical, were investigated. Putting co-working at the centre of the discussion gives opportunities to map connections between various forms of creative industries, civil society organisations and new types of economies. A critical overview of where and why we are at this moment, including an analysis of how we talk about the issues and what our conceptual understanding is, has been a crucial starting point. Through activities such as transnational meetings, conferences and professional work exchange an array of different approaches were gathered, best practices shared and new ideas were allowed to emerge. INCOME also applied a critical approach to co-working. What kind of social and economical patterns do we reproduce when defining our working environments as co-working spaces? What type of impact on our societies do we strive for when re-designing work as co-working? The project largely depended on accumulating varied types of knowledge and experiences, through professionals visiting each other’s organisations, following their work and activities, taking part in meetings and study visits and getting to know the local situation - job shadowing. This does not only promote sharing of ideas and best practices, but also helps to quickly get insights into each other’s work, allowing to form new networks and relationships and understand how we can make use of the experiences, a good breeding ground for future projects and further exchange. Afterwards, the participants function as “multipliers” through employing new methods in their organisations and spreading the knowledge to their different target groups. At local level, partners have conducted their own local stakeholder meeting or activity, in order to disseminate results as well as to further deepen the knowledge about the topics. Through the INCOME journey partners dove headfirst into the world of co-working. When implementing and spreading the conclusions, these could allow a more dynamic labour market with the contribution of the dimensions of culture, innovation and technology. At the end of this journey made of exchange, research, and inspiration, the project found strategies and actions that can result in successful co-working practices: In short: Be Fully Part of Your Local Community; Give Your Community Specific Added Value; Be Protagonist of the Scientific/Technical World; Learn From Culture and Artistic Methods. The ideas and experiences are gathered in the publication “Exploring collaboration experiences and innovative work spaces in Europe”, where in dept texts and analyses are combined with conclusions and the partner’s own experiences. Within the network of partners, new ideas have already started to form in different constellations. Co-working as a concept will be implemented in many future activities - not only those addressing youth or unemployment, but as a fruitful thought-model and method to develop businesses, communities and culture.