European Rural Coworking Project

Creating sustainable projects in rural clusters for a better Europe – together

So what’s rural?

It is the majority of Europe

Rural areas account for just over three quarters (75.8 %) of the EU’s total area, with approximately one fifth of this (20.5 %) defined as towns and suburbs.

It is crucial to the future of Europe

It provides us with our food, homes, jobs, and essential ecosystem services.

It is the default

Oddly, “rural” is not really defined.  Instead, it covers everywhere not identified as urban centres or as urban clusters; and these are defined as places with more than 50,000 residents nearby. So legal status as a city, town, or village is not part of it.

So why a Coworking Project?

More and more people are moving to the countryside in Europe. But new people moving to rural areas does not magically solve structural problems such as transportation, access to services, diversification of economic opportunities, or loss of population.

The Coworking movement offers the possibility of a truly local approach, dictated by the needs of your own community, with international reach and impact. Only together can we transform European Rural areas, one place at a time.

First phase objectives:

The Rural Coworking Project has completed its first development phase. Under the leadership of Johanna Voll and Jose Morales we achieved the following:

• Begin Identifying local ambassadors for rural coworking across Europe.
• Begin mapping rural and suburban Coworking spaces in Europe.

Second phase objectives:

Under the leadership of Claire Carpenter and Maria do Céu Bastos, we would like to transform the ERCP. Our vision is to establish:

• An online (and perhaps, in-real-life) community to share experiences, best practices, and success stories, 
• A place to develop our knowledge and skills, foster peer learning, and collectively enhance our ability to create sustainable and thriving ‘Rural hubs’
• A grassroots, participatory organization which can enter into public-private partnerships, and collectively seek funding and support at the local, regional, national, and EU levels

Our team

The Rural Coworking Project is an independent project of the European Coworking Assembly. ECA members lead and organize it and Country Ambassadors bring the knowledge, resources, and assets of the project home to their respective countries.

European Rural Coworking Project, 2023 

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