Collaborative spaces and place-based policies: organizational practices and challenges in peripheral areas

The article focuses on the organizational practices adopted by collaborative spaces’ managers to engage local actors. These organizational practices enable collaborative spaces to emerge as “brokering” actors who undertake a semi-public role and facilitate the relationship between local actors and policy makers. In doing so, collaborative spaces contribute to place-based policies – i.e., context-specific policies tailored to the specific needs, competencies, and resources characterizing one specific territory, which most often cater to peripheral areas. Through a qualitative study of a collaborative space managed by an association based in Italy’s “inner areas” (i.e., Start Working Pontremoli), the article identifies three organizational practices that collaborative spaces’ managers can adopt to facilitate interaction and collaboration both within and outside their spaces, support the definition of new activities and services by local actors, and improve the pool of local talent and knowledge. Implications for both collaborative spaces and place-based policies are also discussed.

Keywords: collaborative spaces; place-based policies; brokering; peripheral areas; organizational practices; qualitative study.

Stefano Rodighiero, Carlo Fusari, Fabrizio Montanari, Davide Sordi, Gli spazi collaborativi a supporto delle politiche place-based: pratiche organizzative e sfide nelle aree periferiche in "STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI " 1/2025, pp 36-66, DOI: 10.3280/SO2025-001002