As the CORAL-ITN project comes to a conclusion, we’re excited to share the journey and achievements of our exploration into collaborative workspaces (CWS) — from coworking spaces and makerspaces to innovation hubs — thriving in Europe’s rural and peripheral regions. Over the past years, CORAL-ITN has brought together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to better understand how these creative spaces spark local innovation, empower communities, and shape new paths for regional development. Through the dedicated work of 15 Early-Stage Researchers and countless collaborations, the project has deepened our knowledge of how CWS can transform not only places but also the people and enterprises that call them home.
This collection of articles, authored by CORAL Early Stage Researchers, examines how coworking spaces, makerspaces, and grassroots innovations implement alternative models of work, collaboration, and community life, frequently situated outside urban areas and conventional capitalist systems. By analyzing themes such as equality, wellbeing, community development, and spatial justice, these articles clarify the actual and perceived capacities of these spaces to promote inclusive, sustainable, and transformative societal outcomes.
CORAL ITN Massive Open Online Course was made having in mind all of those who are intellectually curious about CWS, such as students who want to explore further phenomena that are related to the transformations of work, workplace, and rural areas coworking practitioners that wish to advance their hands – on knowledge with conceptual and methodological debates about CWS advocates and policy makers who wish to bring at the forefront of their policy agenda the support and development of rural and peripheral areas through CWS.
CORAL ITN podcast series unpacks the diverse ways that the function of collaborative workspaces in non-urban areas impacts local businesses, labour, well-being, community formation and creative production.
The CORAL ITN project documentary celebrates the project’s achievements, showcasing fieldwork stories, rural collaborative spaces and the inspiring individuals behind them.
