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
Curious?
We are holding an online meet-up of National Ambassadors (and supporters)
At this meetup we will:
- Lay out our high-level ideas & plans for developing the ERCP over the next few years
- Seek agreement from five to six National Ambassadors – to engage specifically in a pilot of a multi-country, National Network Engagement Plan, over 2024
- Discuss next steps, including a hybrid meet-up at Coworking Europe in Porto in 28-29 November 2023
Are you generally interested in this general endeavor but can’t come to the call? Are you running a similar program and want to work together? Just reply to ERCP@coworkingassembly.eu with your response. Hit reply now and get it done!
Save the date and book – for our first ‘ERCP Ambassadors online meetup’.
Thursday 7th September 2023 13:00 GMT / 14:00 CET.
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.
Maria do Ceu Bastos
Claire Carpenter
Hans Abeloos
Jaume Bages
Tobias Kremkau
Rich Mills
Christophe Pigré
Jeannine van der Linden
European Rural Coworking Project, 2023
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