I participated in a symposium of researchers who “hack” research, and I enjoyed it!
WhenJulie Fabbri, professor of innovation management and co-founder of the RGCS collective (Research Group on CollaborativeSpaces ) invited me to join the third edition of their annual symposium, I thought that this kind of academic conference might be too difficult for a non-specialist like me. “Not at all!” Julie replied. “Our collective encourages a playful and collaborative approach to research. We are worlds apart from the image of the isolated researcher stuck in the library or dry conferences between specialists.” The theme of the symposium, ”Creativity and (co-) creation in changing cities: Collectively organizing for new modes of production and innovation”, which resonates strongly with the emlyon business school Early Makers ecosystem, finally won me over. So I was Barcelona bound — and there are worse destinations — to participate in the 2019 RGCS symposium organized by the coordinators of RGCS’s Barcelona division, Montserrat Pareja-Eastaway(University of Barcelona) and Héloïse Berkowitz(CNRS, TSM Research).
My objective: to observe this group of researchers in action as they experimented with new ways of sharing and analyzing.
Day 1 “Pecha Kucha style” marathon
The symposium began at the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Economics with a theoretically conventional day of presentations and exchanges between peers on published or draft academic articles. The title was intriguing, “Academic (un)conference”. Maybe it wouldn’t be so conventional after all.
Created in 2014, the RGCS collective has grown rapidly and is currently active in more than 20 cities around the world across three continents. For the 2019 symposium, around sixty researchers and doctoral students specializing in management sciences (entrepreneurship, innovation, information systems, etc.) and social sciences (urban planning, architecture, sociology, economics, etc.) came from all over Europe, and even as far away as California. Whether from Berkeley, the Technische Universität Berlin, University of the Arts London, Paris Dauphine, or from other locations, their work focuses on innovative organizations, the future of work, and the Makers and Hackers movements.The sessions had eye-catching titles– “Transforming the city”, “Rethinking entrepreneurship and innovation”, or “New work forms”, topics that affect us all. The presence of other “inquisitive” attendees, students, people involved in local collaborative movements, and public actors gave me some reassurance about the technical nature of the presentations to come. Nonetheless, to a novice like me, the rhythm seemed mind-boggling!
After an inspiring introduction on “Collaborative movements: lessons for co-creating a better world”, no less than 39 presentations followed in two parallel sets of workshops before a final roundtable discussion. There was one requirement: articles had to be presented in Pecha Kuchaform. Although formats like “My thesis in 180 seconds” or TEDx are increasingly well known, I had never heard of Pecha Kucha. Introduced in Japan by designers and architects in response to never-ending, soporific PowerPoint presentations (Pecha Kucha means “chatter” in Japanese), the concept is simple: 20 slides x 20 seconds, giving about seven minutes of synchronized presentation. Each slide contains an image and as little text as possible. The slideshow runs continuously, forcing the speaker to be fluid and to maintain a certain rhythm. Most of the speakers had never tried this type of presentation before, but all of them rose to the challenge. The presentations followed one another at breakneck speed, alternating with questions and comments. These exchanges provide valuable feedback for the research group on the field of study, the methodology employed, etc.
Social networks play an important role in the collaborative and participatory aspect of the collective.
A lunch break and we were off again! The content was dense, the presentations all in English, the academic lingua franca, and I had to concentrate to catch all the details: Who are slashers? Are homeless people the ultimate entrepreneurs? The smart city as an open data ecosystem. Fab Regions — constructing a territorial innovation model based on FabLabs. The impact of artificial intelligence and new technologies on urban projects (hold on, this reminds me of emlyon business school’s new campus project at Gerland)… Everything was fascinating!
At the end of this (un)conference, my head was spinning from all the intellectual stimulation but I was delighted. A lighter, tailored version of the day would be an excellent format for introducing the general public to the strong, but rarely seen, link between management research and social issues, such as “living together”.
Day 2 OWEE Expedition [Open Walked Event-based Experimentations]
On Day 2, we found ourselves at Ca L’Alier, with no idea what was awaiting us (a core element of the RGCSlearning expeditionsphilosophy). This former factory, located in the heart of the Poblenoudistrict (where rehabilitation works are in full swing) is home to the urban innovation centre. David Martinez, Director of the Fundacio Barcelona Institute of Technology, tells us more about the genesis of project 22@,a project to transform a former industrial district, in decline by the end of the 1990s, into a “smart district” — a place to live, work, and learn.
The project is of great interest to the collective because of the participatory approach adopted at all stages, and because of the determination of all of the actors — companies, local residents, associations, academics, and politicians — to achieve a co-construction founded on searching for the common good.
Oh oui!– Oh yes!
This introduction served as the common theme for our stroll in the neighborhood, in line with the OWEE procedure (Open Walked Event-based Experimentations). The OWEE approach, developed by the collective, is particularly well-suited to their research objective and to the observation of collaborative areas, new work spaces, and urban planning. OWEE is a meta-collaborative protocol: it is exhilarating to see how the RGCS collective applies collaborative methods, at the heart of its research, to itself. Divided into small groups accompanied by guides, we discovered the reality of project 22@ on the ground. OWEEwalks are designed to take researchers out of their labs, encourage discussions, and break down barriers between academics and the other actors present, whether they are practitioners, entrepreneurs, representatives of institutions, or journalists. It emphasizes the emotional and co-constructed dimension of analysis.
The 22@, a mixed district combining old and modern housing, businesses, cultural sites, artistic wastelands, and faculty.
Collaborative collage
For the second phase of the protocol, we set out (this time without a guide), alone or in groups, in search of concrete urbanization elements corresponding to six themes such as mobility, housing, public spaces, or innovation. Adopting a very original, playful, and co-creative approach, the idea was to use twitter as a new meta-writing tool, drawing inspiration from surrealist collages (see Héloïse Berkowitz’s presentation on the topic). The process may seem superficial at first sight, but the result is amazingly relevant. Combining situations, personal perceptions, and immediacy, it evokes performance art. As François-Xavier de Vaujany, professor at Université Paris Dauphine and president of RGCS, and Laetitia Vitaud, an expert in the future of work and consumption, explain in a poston the OWEE process, social networks play an important role in the process. They form the new rituals of the modern world that cement the relationships between participants, whether academics or not. They “horizontalize” relationships within the group, encouraging everyone to share their OWEE experience and become its ambassador.
Back at the Ca L’Alier, the purpose of our reflexive “walk & talk” took the form of a social wall co-created by all participants, a summary of the posts shared during the day.
The second day concluded with a roundtable discussion, moderated by Ignasi Capdevila, author of one of the first theses on collaborative spaces and movements, defended at HEC Montréal in 2014. Since these third places first emerged, entrepreneurs, experts, and facilitators of co-working areas have been contributing to the debate through their concrete experiences and perceptions of the way these spaces evolve.
Without calling into question traditional research protocols, the RGCS collective proposes events to test new ways of working and co-producing knowledge for researchers, professionals, actors from the associative world, and activists.
The annual symposium is a highlight in the life of the collective, a time to connect, to share current work in progress, to test the OWEE approach in new spaces, and to open up and share these thought processes with all stakeholders.
By the end of the symposium, I’m convinced that research can be open to the world. Participatory, interactive, and playful, this is living research, engaged in the technological and societal transformations we are experiencing today.
Get your diaries out for the fourth edition of the RGCS symposium, to be held in Lyon in January 2020. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be there.
