A typology of localized spaces of collaborative innovation

Creativity has a strong social component. The capture of distributed collective creativity plays a significant role in the innovative processes in organizations. In recent years, many localized spaces of collaborative innovation have been created predominantly in cities under different names such as: Fab Labs, hackerspaces, makerspaces, co-working spaces and Living Labs. All these spaces are based on openness, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. However, they differ in their entrepreneurial approach. This chapter proposes a classification of different localized collaborative spaces according to 1) their focus either on the exploration of new ideas or the exploitation of innovations with a business purpose, and 2) the governance mode, whether it is ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’. It analyses the similarities and differences of these four different ‘ideal’ types and discusses how these spaces act as platforms for interaction of local actors and potential places for the emergence of local communities around specific practices and interests.