The Metamorphosis of Production. Which Issues for Policy and Planning?

Coworking spaces (CSs) and makerspaces (MSs), which can be considered as symbolic spaces of the ongoing digital innovation in working and making, are more and more the object of political and media rhetoric. However, they demand further scientific investigation: on the one hand, to better understand their economic outcomes, and their effects on the social and physical environment; on the other, to reflect about strategies and solutions of urban and regional policy and planning in order to support the development of the digital production of goods and services as an occasion of urban and regional regeneration and rebalancing. On the background of research activity, which has been conducted in Italy, with a specific focus on the Milan urban region, the chapter highlights the spatial locations and geographies of CSs and MSs in relation to features of both the built environment and the production system. At the same time, it outlines the experimental approach as well as the weaknesses of related strategies and solutions promoted by urban and regional policy and planning. The chapter contributes not only to dismantle the frequent emphasis on these innovative workplaces but also to exploit their potentialities in connection with multi-scalar territorial contexts. Furthermore, it contributes to support innovation in urban and regional policy and planning, and related tools and mechanisms, going beyond some current strategies and solutions such as the subsidizing policies and building rules, which are often fragmented, and difficult to integrate with the multi-level socio-economic and spatial issues expressed by knowledge-intensive and creative activities, and new manufacturing.