New Workplaces in “In-Between” Territories. Productive, Educational and Urban Dimensions of Emilian Makerspaces

Urban manufacturing has recently entered city planning discourses, fostering an increasing number of urban policies that promote the return and/or the conservation of production activities in the city. Many researchers have studied the diffusion of coworking and makerspaces, concentrating mostly on global cities and regions. Nonetheless, recent inquiries reveal that such activities shape reticular geography, which also includes in-between territories, namely mid-sized cities, industrial districts and widespread urbanizations. This paper investigates this territorial diffusion, assuming the Central area of the Emilia-Romagna Region as a case-study for the co-existence of two processes of manufacturing transformation. On the one hand, we have the transformation of traditional, specialized industrial districts due to globalization, the economic crisis and knowledge economy improvement, on the other hand, the diffusion of new, different makerspaces. Some of them are sustained by public policies, while others are linked to private initiatives. Some are located in midsized and capital cities, whereas others have flourished in dispersed urbanizations and industrial districts. By analyzing some concrete experiences, the paper addresses the following research questions: do makerspaces have relationships with local industrial and education/research ecosystems? Do they shape peculiar places and/or transform existing urban spaces? Do they contribute to social innovation and/or local welfare systems?