Supporting open, shared and collaborative workspaces and hubs: recent transformations and policy implications

Shared workspaces and hubs for independent workers and start-ups are increasingly becoming a subject of local and regional economic development policies as they are considered crucial intermediaries in facilitating entrepreneurial growth and local innovation agendas. However, so far policy-makers do little to address two transformations in recent shared workspace development: the growing commercialization and diversification of shared workspaces and the spread of coworking beyond big agglomerations towards medium-sized and smaller cities and even rural areas. The paper argues for new policy principles that acknowledge the social values as much as the economic values that shared workspaces generate and promote.