The final report of the mission in charge of formulating proposals to develop collaborative work spaces, led by Patrick Levy Waitz, provides numerous data on the territorial network of "third places".
The authors of the report estimated, at the beginning of the mission that there were 600 third places in France. "They are called "coworking", "Fablab", "shared workshop", "Living Lab", "garage solidaire", "social place", "makerspace", or "cultural wasteland": they aim at creation, training, learning. They value sharing, solidarity and "doing". They are in movement in a society, hybrid in an environment in deep mutation".
Rather than conducting a new (and impossible) census, the mission relied on the results of 15 existing databases and cross-checked them by geolocation. The mission estimates, at the end of its work, the number of existing third places at 1800: 1463 identified third places and nearly 1800 if we add the 20% of third places that the mission estimates not to have yet identified).
Two main types of third places were thus distinguished:
- Third places with a coworking focus, where shared work spaces are the core of the activity;
- Third places with a fablab orientation, where manufacturing, through the provision of machines and tools, is the heart of the activity.
The third places with a coworking focus represent 76% of the 1463 third places identified.
A strong concentration in the metropolises
Of these 1,463 third-party sites, 674, or nearly half of the total, are located outside the 22 metropolitan areas.https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/CMv6x/1/
The 22 metropolises represent barely 1/3 of the population, while they concentrate more than half of the existing third places.
In relation to the number of inhabitants, the number of third places per inhabitant is almost three times greater in metropolitan France than in the rest of the country: 1 third place for 24,000 inhabitants in metropolitan France and 1 third place for 67,000 inhabitants outside metropolitan France.
In relation to their respective areas, the differences are much greater: more than 54 third places per 1,000 km2in the metropolises and just over one third of the place per 1,000 km2 on the rest of the territory.
Strong disparities between regions
Five regions stand out in terms of the number of third places: Ile-de-France (316 third places), Nouvelle-Aquitaine (222), Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (200), Occitanie (163) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (127).https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/7O97P/1/
New Aquitaine and Occitania are distinguished by a significant presence of third places outside the metropolis.
If we look only at the distribution of third places outside metropolises, the regions with the greatest number of third places are :
- New Aquitaine with 157 third-party venues outside metropolitan areas (23% of the total outside metropolitan areas)
- Occitania with 105 third places outside metropolises (16% of the total outside metropolises)
- Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with 69 third places outside metropolises (10% of the total outside metropolises)
- Burgundy-Franche-Comté with 54 third places outside metropolises (8% of the total outside metropolises)
- The Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region with 54 third-party venues outside of metropolitan areas (8% of the total outside of metropolitan areas)
Five regions appear to be ahead of the game in terms of the number of existing third places: Ile-de-France, New Aquitaine, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. This observation can be explained, according to the mission, by two intersecting effects:
- The dynamism of metropolises influences the number of third places on the whole regional territory (effect particularly visible in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, region which counts the most metropolises, four on the regional territory);
- Regional policies influence the development of third places: the most advanced regions are those that have implemented regional policies to support third places (New Aquitaine, Burgundy-French-County, Occitania, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Ile-de-France...).
One out of three employment areas lacks a third location
Based on the observation that third places are places where new forms of work and new professions, largely linked to digital technology, can be found, and in order to analyze the distribution of these third places on the French territory in more detail, the mission studied third places on the scale of the 321 employment zones.In order to differentiate the metropolises from the rest of the territory, the mission excluded from the analysis the 29 employment zones in which more than 30% of the population of the employment zone works in the metropolis. In fact, all the employment zones attached to metropolises concentrate 886 third places, i.e. 60% of all third places.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/wz0l5/1/
In the 292 employment areas outside of metropolitan areas, third places are concentrated in the most densely populated employment areas.
- 287 third places, i.e. 50% of the total outside metropolises, are located in the 65 employment areas outside metropolises with more than 200,000 inhabitants
- 290 third-party sites are located in the other 227 employment areas.
No third party sites in 94 employment areas
The mission also observed that in 94 employment zones, i.e., nearly one employment zone out of three, there are no third places. These employment zones are rather medium-sized, the vast majority of them having a population of less than 100,000 inhabitants (73 employment zones without a third place).
The absence of third places also concerns more densely populated employment areas.
75 employment areas have only one third location.
28 recommendations of the Mission "Coworking: doing things together to live better together
Structuring the sector- To create a national movement of third places carrying out support actions
- Supporting the emergence of 300 Territorial Factories
- Back the movement with a seed fund to launch the acceleration mechanism
- Set up a permanent call for projects to support project leaders over the long term
- Launch a project to simplify standards for third-party locations
- Professionalize the profession of third-party site facilitator
- Recognize and value the training of third-party facilitators
- Encourage and accelerate the structuring of regional networks of third places
- Make third places the gateway to the digitalization of territories
- Make third places a place of transmission and intergenerational learning
- Encourage coordination between public actors and third places
- Supporting positive environmental impact activities implemented by third-party venues
- Putting in place tools that facilitate access to real estate over the long term
- Encourage the provision of community facilities
- Encourage rental with progressive rent according to turnover
- Reducing taxes on third-party social venues
- Dedicate financial support to the development and consolidation of third places in the
- territories in difficulty
- Encourage the creation of regional endowment funds dedicated to third places
- Encourage access to third-party venues for certain audiences via inclusion schemes
- Encourage shared governance and partnership models
- Train public agents in third places to facilitate coordination and encourage entrepreneurship in the State civil service and local authorities to create vocations as third place animators
- Establish a mentoring system for third-party projects
- Create a network of ambassadors for third places
- Develop incentives for telecommuting
- Put in place recognition and valuation systems for third places to reassure companies and administrations (label, charter)
- Consider a rebalancing of economic taxation to the benefit of the teleworker's host territory
- Develop tools for observing new forms of work (telework, telecommuting), their impact on the territories and the resulting needs
- Create a body to evaluate the system
110 million euros to develop third places in the territories
The Government will launch, starting in 2019, a national program for the development of third places to the tune of 110 million euros over three years, to promote the creation of 300 Fabriques des territoires."The Ministers, Jacques Mézard and Julien Denormandie, want to support the dynamics of third places. It is not a matter of doing things in place of the actors but of accompanying them in the consolidation of this movement. The goal is to encourage the return of activity in the territories and to support new ways of working.This assistance will take the form of a seed fund of 20 million euros per year, to enable project leaders to find the right business model. In addition, there will be an endowment fund and an investment fund in companies that support third places, with a total of 50 million euros.This program will be implemented through :
- the creation or development of 300 "Territory Factories" in small and medium-sized cities and priority neighbourhoods of the city policy;
- the creation or development of small rural third places;
- the creation of a national body to organize and promote the sector.
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