ABOUT US

The Research Group on Collaborative Spaces (RGCS) has been set up in November 2014.

It is an independent network and a think tank gathering researchers in the fields of humanities and social sciences (management, organization studies, sociology, economics, anthropology…), practitioners and activists. RGCS is inspired by makers and open science movements. The culture of DIY, open knowledge and do-ocracy are at the heart of its values.

RGCS VISION: THREE IDEAS

RGCS relies on a threefold vision. Firstly, research networks need more than ever to be both global (as almost all international networks) and local. That is why we organize an annual conference, but also local (at the level of different cities) meetings. We see this as a way to be closer to what the world itself has become. Local meetings are also opportunities to share ideas and research with entrepreneurs, managers, journalists, artists and politicians who would probably not join us for a global event.

Then, we want to share research, but we also want to have an impact on society and organizations. That is why RGCS is also a think tank, a collectivity producing (collaboratively), posts, articles, research notes and White Papers for public policies and corporate strategies. All documents collectively produced are free, creative commons-based, open knowledge oriented.

Lastly, RGCS also aims at being an opportunity, through its annual conference (RGCS Symposium) and other local events, to experiment and to test new ways of working and co-producing knowledge for researchers, practitioners and activists.

This does not necessarily mean ‘hacking’ academia, but more complementing academic routines. A new research method has thus been elaborated by RGCS. It is called OWEE (for Open Walked Event-Based Experimentations). It consists in organizing regularly a set of walked, reflexive, partly improvised events all other the world and connecting them in time and space (e.g. with Twitter and other tools), producing a sense of ‘happening’ together with academics, entrepreneurs, activists, artists, to re-appropriate public spaces and places, to be transformative of work practices (e.g. academic work practices). See here our last expeditions.

Research seminars, workshops, learning expeditions, informal discussions between members, and research projects related to RGCS aim at contributing to the annual event, RGCS Symposium. This event is also an opportunity to meet for all the coordinators of the network.

RGCS FOCUS: FUTURE OF WORK, NEW WORK PRACTICES AND COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITIES

RGCS is focused on new work practices (e.g. the emergence of collaborative entrepreneurship, freelancing, slashers, employment-entrepreneurship hybridization, telework, remote work, mobile work, DIY, DIT, makers, open Innovation, open knowledge, corporate hacking…) and workplace transformations (e.g. open spaces, coworking spaces, mobile work, digital nomads, corporate fab labs, fab cities…) in the context of the sharing and peer-to-peer economy.

Our network explores in particular collaborative practices, collaborative spaces, collaborative communities and collaborative movements (e.g. coworkers, makers and hackers) and how they transform or make visible (new) work practices. Studies related to RGCS cover the social, political, managerial, digital, spatial, temporal and historical dimensions of collaborative entrepreneurship, DIY and hacking practices.

RGCS ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNANCE: A NETWORK STRUCTURED AROUND DIFFERENT KIND OF EVENTS

The network is mainly focused on the dynamic of local chapters located in cities in Europe, North America and Asia. Each chapter organizes independently its own events, in particular research seminars, workshops and learning expeditions.

Research seminars are opportunities to attend presentations by academics, practitioners and consultants interested in collaborative spaces.

Workshops correspond to more informal, creative and interactive meetings. They are sometimes organized jointly with research seminars, sometimes separately.

Learning expeditions are key time and spaces which are opportunities to connect RGCS members and to try to have a social impact with OWEE.

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About RGCS – Research Group on Collaborative Spaces