L’empreinte territoriale du coworking. L’exemple d’une agglomération industrielle en reconversion

The years late 2000s have been witnessed of the development of co-working approaches in large cities (San Francisco, Paris, Barcelona, etc.). Such co-working spaces promote an alternative working approach based on creative and collaborative way. This phenomenon quickly spreads to many countries. In many depressed industrial regions (where the development heavily relied on salaried employment and large-scale industry), local officials suppose it as a mean to direct territorial economy towards a new direction. But many difficulties still exist in applying it in practice. These regions are characterized by a very low rate of business creation relative to national rate. The generated co-workers residing in such territories have often few resources (financial and social resources), they tend to strongly develop innovating activities because their main objective is to create self-employment and to be independent. This article presents the results of a survey carried out in a working space, located in Dunkirk (north of France) where growth was still based on heavy industry and wage-earning workers until the 1980s. The survey conducted by interviewing coworkers who are not innovative, even if most of them hold at least a higher education diploma, in an agglomeration where the rate of holding higher education diploma is especially low relative to national level. Before integrating the co-working space, their professional survey was very infrequent. Still, according to them, they form a close community where members help each other. Therefore, in the perspective that the footprint of territory is very strong and entrepreneurship is not so appealing to the most important part of inhabitants, the creation of this co-working space is a great opportunity for Dunkirk to reinvent a new way of development.