Abstract
Makerspaces are collaborative public spaces where new forms of work are developed within the collaborative economy. Within makerspaces, Fab Labs are workshops, open to the public, that offer tools and services for digital manufacturing, thus promoting social and economic innovation from grassroots. Existing research has shown as freedom of access allows communities that share interests in product development to come together and trigger a mechanism of contamination between skills and ongoing informal training. In this sense, makerspaces are capable of activating virtuous relationships with the surrounding environment, producing “local collective goods”. The chapter shows where these workshops have emerged in the first place and then looks at how they have been spreading in recent years. These dynamics of diffusion are shown with a particular reference to Italian case, specifying how national and local factors favored their development. The makerspace are particularly interesting case that is positioned on the international scientific discussion about how the loci of digital fabrication are changing.
In this chapter reference is made to the Fab Labs recognized by the Fab Foundation whose list is available on https://www.fablabs.io/.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The data presented refers to all the laboratories recognised by the Fab Foundation, listed on the Italian section of the website (www.fablab.io/labs) The Fab Foundation –we shall go into more detail about this later on – is a non-profit organisation and part of the Fab Lab program at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. The first part of the analysis is based on data on the website of Fab Foundation. The second part is based on data and information gathered through their websites and specialist blogs and aims to reconstruct some of the Fab Labs’ distinctive features. Finally the empirical research carried out on Italian Fab Labs is based on semi-structured interviews with a representative sample of the founders coordinators of laboratories (20 in total, including two coordinators and non-founders) distributed over the entire peninsula (8 in the Third Italy, 8 in the North-West, and 4 in the South).
- 3.
Hackerspaces are centres that enable people with common interests, often related to software programming and information technologies, to meet in a physical location, to discuss and co-operate on individual or group projects. Their orientation tends to be one of “open innovation”. Makerspaces, meanwhile, include centres and workshops for DIY artisanal activities equipped with tools, equipment (digital or otherwise) and training programs that are made available to the public to create and design. These workshops may be set up by schools, universities, associations, private individuals and companies, both for educational and amateur purposes and for commercial reasons. On the differences between Fab Labs and the above places, see Cavalcanti (2013) e Make in Italy (2015).
- 4.
The data presented refer to all the Fab Labs recognized by the Fab Foundation, a non-profit organization that is part of the Fab Lab program of the Center for Bits and Atoms of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and present in the Italy section of the site (www.fablab.io). The first list of Fab Labs in the world was re-issued in 2012 by the Center for Bits and Atoms. To enter the list, it was necessary to send an email with the laboratory details. Initially, there were 128 fab labs, plus 27 “Planned Fab Labs” (in the opening phase). Shortly after the management of the world map of the Fab Labs, it moved to the Fab Foundation which developed the fablabs.io platform. The mechanism for accessing the list also changes with the new platform. Currently, new laboratories are asked to fill out a form within the platform. Their name is inserted on the map and, only once online, the actual existence of the laboratory must be confirmed by at least one another fab lab already present in the list (and usually geographically close) and by the site administrators.
- 5.
The first Italian initiative of this type was in Emilia-Romagna (Mak-ER) and is a network aimed at integrating the laboratories and digital artisans present in the regional territory. In Tuscany, the Fab Toscana project aims to create a laboratory in each city of the region, as well as integrate those already existing. In Sicily, a first meeting of the makers of the island took place recently to put their projects online. Among the past initiatives were the FabLabs network promoted by Sardegna Ricerche (research and technological development agency of the Sardinia Region) and the Pesaro Urbino provincial network launched by the Pesaro laboratory in collaboration with the Province.
- 6.
The ability to create a local community is measured on the basis of: (1) The degree to which the laboratory is open (access times, costs and methods of registration and use of the machines, presence of open days); (2) The presence within the laboratory of a cohesive group of people characterized by stability and frequency of relationships, which tends to develop common interests and projects.
- 7.
Three indicators were used to detect this second dimension: (1) The ability to activate the demand for services from citizens, schools, businesses; (2) The ability to establish formal and informal collaborations with public and private actors (for example local authorities, trade associations, banks, foundations, etc.); (3) The local and global design capacity, i.e. the ability to carry out projects with local subjects (craftsmen, entrepreneurs, public bodies, etc.) and/or with subjects external to the territory (outside the region and/or national borders).
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Manzo, C. (2021). The Emergence and Spread of Collaborative Makerspaces in Italy. In: Mariotti, I., Di Vita, S., Akhavan, M. (eds) New Workplaces—Location Patterns, Urban Effects and Development Trajectories. Research for Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63443-8_11
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