Speaker:  Dr. Nathalie Mitev

Abstract:   Collaborative work practices are being transformed through the growth of co-working in urban third spaces, makerspaces, fab labs, incubators, accelerators and digital labs. This paper is based on a 2-year project carried out by a network of academics and practitioners interested in new work practices in the collaborative economy, focusing particularly on collaborative workspaces. We concentrate on the relationships between collaboration and these new work practices according to three levels, individual, community and societal, highlighting their spatial and temporal dimensions. Our results indicate that: boundaries between waged employment and entrepreneurship are not rigid; individuals not only suffer from stress in traditional organisations but also of boredom; new collaborative practices imply rethinking their own competences and prospects, often leading to fundamental life changes; co-working communities can provide collective meaning, crucial to supporting these transformations; they can be orientated towards practice, professional identity, and emotional support to address loneliness and sense-making; public discourses about entrepreneurship and innovation and territorial policies are not clearly linked to innovative practices in collaborative spaces. We conclude that there is need for better coordination between public actors and collaborative communities which should be seen at the heart of economic, educational, industrial and cultural policies targeting the city, aiming at collaborating and sharing.

(authors: Nathalie Mitev, King’s College London, UK / Francois-Xavier de Vaujany, Paris-Dauphine University, France / Pierre Laniray, Poitiers University, France / Amélie Bohas, Aix-Marseille University, France / Julie Fabbri, Ecole de Management de Lyon, France).

Short Bio:   Nathalie Mitev was an Associate Professor at the London School of Economics, Information Systems and Innovation Group, in the Department of Management for 17 years. She held prior academic positions at Salford University in Manchester and City University Business School in London. Her research focuses on the organisational aspects of information systems and technology, particularly from a sociological and political perspective. She has built a reputation for in- depth qualitative research, for setting a critical agenda and helping to bring this approach within mainstream information systems and organizations research. She has published critical work in management studies (in e.g., Journal of Management Studies, Management Learning, Personnel Review, Culture and Organisation) and information systems (European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Information Technology and People, The Information Society, Information Technology for Development). She was track chair for ICIS in 2006 and co-chaired the IFIP8.2 conference in 2014. She co-edited 'Materiality and Space', ‘Materiality and Time’, and 'Materiality and Regulation' published in 2012-2015 by Palgrave Macmillan. They books based on an ongoing series of workshops on 'Organizations, Artefacts and Practices' she co-founded. She is Research Associated at Paris-Dauphine University and King’s College London, and visiting professor at the Institut d'Administration des Entreprises at Poitiers University and Grenoble University.