Collaborative communities in the city: From policies for to policies through third-places?

Collaborative communities, spaces and movements are increasingly structuring the emergent collaborative economy. The Alpha Version of this White Paper is grounded in the discussion of a key trend: the growing convergence between managerial and political agencies. More than ever, the agency of managers has transformed society and the modalities of ‘living together' (public communication, modalities of representativeness of a collectivity, a discourse or a practice, systems of legitimacy). The phenomenon is not that new. In the 30s, Henry Ford and his T model transformed American society and part of its sense of togetherness. With the mass production of cars and the social or economic compromise underpinning it, Ford also managed to institutionalize a political model. Since the 90s, the political effects of managerial actions have taken an extent (potentially global), a depth (related to the very mechanisms of democracy and the shape of democratic forums) and an unpredictability (global actors emerge sometimes within one year) which has rarely been reached in the history of capitalism. It could be said that today, public policies are originated by a myriad of actors-entrepreneurs often de-territorialized from any local and national interests. How did we get there? The Alpha version of this White Paper underlines three concomitant phenomena: a radical evolution of connectivity modes, a change in the modalities and the processes of sense-making (a new "semiosis") and the emergence of new kinds of political consciousness. These transformations (started at the end of the 40s and which have accelerated since the 90s) induce new convergences between the transformative capacities of managers (in particular those of entrepreneurs) and those of politicians (as institutional actors with a mandate for political actions). Collaborative communities and collaborative spaces crystallize the aforementioned dimensions. Coworking spaces, maker spaces, fab labs, hacker spaces and living labs are as much managerial phenomena (they are the new forms of an acting together which can imbricate with more classic managerial forms) as political ones (they are also at the heart of renewed forms of ‘living together, ways of life and communitarian decision modes). From RGCS seminars, meetings of our Standing Groups, but also ongoing research, the RGCS coordinator summarizes here four key tendencies (indistinctively managerial and political) identified during one year of discussions and observations. After having stressed the Napoleon complex aspect of local, national and international policies, it insists on the importance of coordinated policies (both between public actors, between collaborative movements, and between collaborative movements and public actors). This White Paper targets new citizens-entrepreneurs-makers, politicians and strategic decision-makers. Collaborative communities do not only need to be the objects of fragmented policies or multiple local initiatives. They could and they should model the heart of integrative policies about entrepreneurship, innovation, urbanism, social inclusion, culture and education at the heart of the city