Collaborative Workspaces Enhancing Youth Employment in Rural Areas

Collaborative workspaces (CWS) can improve local and regional sustainable development through promoting near-working strategies that reduce commuting, congestion, and out-migration (Mariotti et al., 2023a, b; Merkel et al., 2023). Within the rural areas, a key aim of CWS is to improve access to and use of digital technology for residents and businesses, thereby making rural living a more viable proposition and coupling it with employment and training services (Flipo et al., 2022). In European rural areas, CWS have been specifically established to (i) help retain and attract residents, remote workers, and businesses (Slee et al., 2017; Bisello & Litardi, 024; Eurofound and European Commission Joint Research Centre, 2024), (ii) train young people and Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEETs) to reduce brain drain and enhance brain gain, brain and knowledge circulation (Mariotti & Sasso, 2024; Manoukas, 2024); support young start-ups and entrepreneurs (Bosworth et al., 2023; Manoukas, 2024; Mariotti & Sasso, 2024). Besides, they can also offer mentoring to young people to get public incentives and access to funding. By providing support, mentorship, and a professional network to various actors, CWS in rural areas can promote local (entrepreneurial and innovation) ecosystems, besides, can mediate, acting as a bridge between users and the external actors of the larger local ecosystems (Bosworth et al., 2023). This chapter aims to fill the gap in the literature by presenting and discussing to what extent the CWS networks described in the literature, and subsequently explored by the authors, aim to enhance youth employment in rural areas, which are characterised by high shares of NEETs. The initiatives selected and analysed are (i) National Connected Hub Network in Ireland; (ii) Tiers-Lieux in France; (iii) FUNDECYT-PCTEX in Extremadura, Spain; (iv) National Network of Telework and Coworking Spaces in the Inland Territories in Portugal, (v) South Working in Italy. These five initiatives have been selected because they are heterogeneous in terms of workspace typology, geographical extent, funding sources, and how to promote youth employment.