Walking the Commons

Walking the Commons: Driftng Together in the City François-Xavier de Vaujany, Amélie Bohas, Jeremy Aroles, Nicolas Aubouin, Héloïse Berkowitz, Claudine Bonneau, Hélène Bussy-Socrate, Sabine Carton, Boukje Cnossen, Aurore Dandoy, et al. To cite this version: François-Xavier de Vaujany, Amélie Bohas, Jeremy Aroles, Nicolas Aubouin, Héloïse Berkowitz, et al.. Walking the Commons: Driftng Together in the City. [Research Report] RGCS (Research Group on Collaborative Spaces). 2018. halshs-01907637 HAL Id: halshs-01907637 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01907637 Submitted on 29 Oct 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 2nd RGCS WHITE PAPER WALKING THE COMMONS: DRIFTING TOGETHER IN THE CITY [email protected] October, 2018 @collspaces 1 COORDINATORS: AMÉLIE BOHAS & FRANÇOIS-XAVIER DE VAUJANY CONTRIBUTORS (AUTHORS BY ALPHABETICAL ORDER): AROLES JEREMY, AUBOIN NICOLAS, BERKOWITZ HELOISE, BOHAS AMELIE, BONNEAU CLAUDINE, BUSSY-SOCRATE HELENE, CARTON SABINE, CNOSSEN BOUKJE, DANDOY AURORE, DE VAUJANY FRANÇOIS-XAVIER, FABBRI JULIE, GLASER ANNA, GRANDAZZI ALBANE, HAEFLIGER STEFAN, HASBI MARIE, IRRMANN OLIVIER, LANIRAY PIERRE, PASSALACQUA ANNIE, VIVIANE SERGI, VALLAT DAVID, VITAUD LAETITIA, VOLL JOHANNA, ZACHARIOU RENEE Cette œuvre, création, site ou texte est sous licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International. Pour accéder à une copie de cette licence, merci de vous rendre à l'adresse suivante http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ou envoyez un courrier à Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. 2 ABSTRACT This second RGCS white paper is focused on a new research practice and method co- designed by members of our network: Open Walked Event-Based Experimentations (OWEE). The protocol consists in a free, several day long learning expedition in a city, which brings together different stakeholders (academics, entrepreneurs, activists, makers, journalists, artists, students, etc.) and relies on a partly improvised process (both the people met and places visited are part of the improvisation that emerges in the flow of discussions). Walk and embodiment are central, as both indoor and outdoor times are expected to involve participants and remote followers differently. Although close to the French “Dérive”, OWEE also diverges from it on several key points. This white paper returns to the OWEE philosophy, the importance of improvisation and public spaces, and the search for commons in the way collaboration and knowledge are built and shared. It then discusses the issue of preparing and managing the event. Finally, we offer several case studies and ethnographies related to past events. These feedback and empirical analyses are opportunities to explore key questions for the city as well as the ways we live and work together. We conclude by stressing the importance of embodiment and ‘felt solidarity’ in the approach of commons and communalization in today’s collaborative world. Keywords: OWEE; method; walk; learning expeditions; commons; narration; sharing economy; future of work; future of academia; open science; citizen science; makers; DIY. 3 SUMMARY PART I: WHAT IS OWEE? The OWEE philosophy PART II: LIVING OWEE EXPERIENCE Collaborating and Co-designing the narrative PART III: BUILDING KNOWLEDGE FROM OWEE Exploring, reflecting, learning and teaching in the walk 4 Droit devant soi, on ne peut pas aller bien loin. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – Le petit prince INTRODUCTION: EXPLORING MAKERS, OR BECOMING MAKERS? AUTHORS: FRANÇOIS-XAVIER DE VAUJANY (PSL, Paris-Dauphine University) & AMELIE BOHAS (Aix-Marseille University) Since 2016, the Research Group on the spirit of the practice of the French Collaborative Spaces (RGCS) has dérive (drift), the idea is to introduce in the organized learning expeditions and field walk something managers, consultants and trips, which were, in a first time, politicians organizing field trips and learning opportunities to explore a territory and expeditions cannot afford: improvisation in more simply, to launch new chapters of the the flow of the walk and fuzzy temporal and network. In early 2017, with a second spatial boundaries for our events. An OWEE learning expedition in Berlin (#collday2017), is primarily a ‘temporal luxury’. We take our came the idea that from this practice time and do our best to care in the flow of (which was quite common for innovators, our walk. Beyond the walks, we take time to entrepreneurs and some academics), we analyze and reflect upon what we saw, could co-produce an approach or a and how we felt. Everybody is welcome to method that could become a common, join. The practice of walking is key and is both for the network and the communities amplified and made meaningful by seated, we work with. This common would be a way indoor moments of visits, stays and to bridge the time and space of our discussions. Beyond this local and punctual learning expedition and their narratives as philosophy, we do our best to connect all well as the different concerns, our events (OWEE but also publications, temporalities, actors (academics, political debates, past artistic entrepreneurs, managers, activists, artists) performances, etc.) in order to make them we encountered. This was also an alive in the flow of each event… opportunity to be closer to the culture of making that was at the heart of our objects After two years of experimentations and 19 of study (coworkers, makers, hackers). We OWEEs (see list in Table 1), we believe that could not simply be passive spectators of the time has come for a first feedback on our world. We needed to be doers, makers this practice. This is exactly the objective we and hackers ourselves in order to gain a gave to this White Paper, namely deeper understanding of the collaborative formalizing a first feedback co-produced communities that were at the heart of our by all those who managed or participated research and entrepreneurial activities. to our learning expeditions. Following our learning expedition in Tokyo The learning expeditions (19) we (July 2017), we labelled this approach we conducted between 2016 and 2018 are were formalizing or attempting to formalize summarized in the table below (see Table OWEE (which stands for Open Walked 1) and represented on the map (see Picture Event-Based Experimentations). Close to 1): 5 NAME PLACE DATE HASHTAG AND DESCRIPTION Pictures and sketches of hacking gestures in the flow of our exploration of makerspaces, hackerspaces and coworking #visualizinghacking2016 Berlin July 2016 spaces. Selection of pictures and sketches presented at Paris Town Hall at the end of our first symposium Learning expedition organized day 2 after the opening Opening event of RGCS Barcelona #RGCSB Barcelona September 2016 seminar of RGCS Barcelona. First symposium, including a three-path learning expedition #RGCS2016 Paris December 2016 in the east of Paris. Second session of visualizing hacking. Same principle: #visualizinghacking2017 Tokyo June 2017 capturing gestures of hacking and improvising. Four-day long learning expedition in Tokyo. Unconference and visit of a coworking space and #OOSE2017 Copenhagen July 2017 makerspace (at the end of the conference). Second event in Berlin. Three-day long learning expedition #collday2017 Berlin July 2017 focused on collaborative spaces in the east and west of Berlin. Four-day long learning expedition in Roma and Milan. Roma and Opening event for both chapters. Visit of Italian coworking #sharingday2017 December 2017 Milan spaces and makerspaces. Discussions about the future of work in Italy. Half-day learning expedition in Geneva at the end of an #OWEEUN Geneva December 2017 unconference at the United Nations. One-day long learning expedition in London at the end of #RGCS2018 London January 2018 the second RGCS symposium. Collaboration. Half-day visits and walk focused on startups #HIMMSU 2018 #howImetmystartup #OWEE Paris March 20118 and collaborative spaces in Paris. OWEE with EM Lyon students in the context of the OWEE Printemps des Entrepreneurs Lyon April 2018 “Printemps des entrepreneurs in Lyon”. One-day long learning expedition in Montreal. Focused on #OWEEMTL “Entrepreneuriat et technologie” Montreal May 2018 collaborative spaces. Exploration of several innovation labs in the Lyon area with OWEE innovation labs Lyon May 2018 EM Lyon students. Exploration of street art in Paris. Used to reflect upon #OWEESA Paris June 2018 academia and our practices. 6 Off the track event of EGOS 2018 conference. Seminar, fish- #OOSE2018 Tallin July 2018 ball based panel, visit of a makerspace and alternative areas of Talllin (improvised walk). Innovation through History: an exploration of Visit of CNAM with the purpose of exploring history of Paris July 2018 the CNAM museum innovation. Anna created a template to follow and fulfill. Four-day long learning expedition in Boston. Exploration in #hackingday2018 Boston July 2018 particular of MIT and Harvard ecosystem. Topic:

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