The present paper investigates the location patterns and the effects coworking spaces generate on the urban context, issues that have been neglected by the existing literature. The focus is on Milan, the core of the Italian knowledge-based, creative, digital, and sharing economy, and the city hosting the largest number of coworking spaces in Italy. The paper addresses three main questions: (1) Where are the main locations of coworking spaces in Milan? (2) Are there any transformative effects of coworking spaces, respectively at the urban scale and at the very local scale?(3) What are their impacts in terms of spatial transformation and in terms of innovation in practices (for instance, work, leisure, or culture)? Desk research showed that location patterns of coworking spaces resemble those of service industries in urban areas, with a propinquity to the so-called "creative clusters." Field research shed light on urban effects, such as the participation of workers in coworking spaces in local community initiatives, their contribution to urban revitalization trends, and micro-scale physical transformations. The paper, therefore, helps to fill the gap in the literature about the location patterns of these new working spaces and their urban effects at different scales, both in terms of urban spaces and practices.

Social and social-spatial inequality are on the rise in the Global North. This has resulted in increasing segmentation between population groups with different social and ethnic backgrounds, and in differentiated access to cultural and material assets. With these changes, the relation between segregation in the educational sphere and segregation in the residential sphere has become crucial for understanding social reproduction and intergenerational social mobility. However, knowledge about this relation is still limited. We argue that the institutional and spatial contexts are key dimensions to consider if we want to expand this knowledge. The institutional context regards the extent of public funding, the degree to which parental choice and/or geographical proximity drive school selection, the role and status of private schools and the religious and pedagogical pluralism of the educational system. The spatial context refers to the geographies of education: the ethnic and social composition of school populations and their reputations; the underlying levels and trends of residential segregation; and the spatial distribution of schools in urban space. In this introduction to the special issue we will address these interrelated dimensions, with reference to theoretical and empirical contributions from the existing body of literature; and with reference to the contributions in this special issue. School segregation emerges from the studies included in this special issue as a relevant issue, differently framed according to the institutional and spatial contexts. A comparative typology will be proposed to illustrate how school segregation is peculiarly shaped in different national and local contexts.

No abstract

The present paper investigates the location patterns and the effects coworking spaces generate on the urban context, issues that have been neglected by the existing literature. The focus is on Milan, the core of the Italian knowledge-based, creative, digital, and sharing economy, and the city hosting the largest number of coworking spaces in Italy. The paper addresses three main questions: (1) Where are the main locations of coworking spaces in Milan? (2) Are there any transformative effects of coworking spaces, respectively at the urban scale and at the very local scale?(3) What are their impacts in terms of spatial transformation and in terms of innovation in practices (for instance, work, leisure, or culture)? Desk research showed that location patterns of coworking spaces resemble those of service industries in urban areas, with a propinquity to the so-called "creative clusters." Field research shed light on urban effects, such as the participation of workers in coworking spaces in local community initiatives, their contribution to urban revitalization trends, and micro-scale physical transformations. The paper, therefore, helps to fill the gap in the literature about the location patterns of these new working spaces and their urban effects at different scales, both in terms of urban spaces and practices.

No abstract