Abstract
This chapter provides an analysis of the different forms of work conducted by community managers in four coworking spaces. Based on in-depth interviews with community managers and participant observation, the chapter examines the role of community managers in the organisational contexts of such spaces. It takes its cue from previous studies which call for a more empirically grounded, critical, study on the phenomenon. Drawing particularly upon feminist arguments for the redefinition of work and research on the gendered character of relational labour, it attempts to respond to this call. Our findings suggest that community managers were informally recruited, under generic job descriptions, if any at all, to mainly execute impression, emotion, and facility management tasks. This informality perpetuates a condition of invisibility for relational practices that are crucial part for the maintenance of the community but experienced as non-work by users, founders, and the people that carry out the work themselves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender and Society, 4(2), 139–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124390004002002
Akerman, C. (Director). (1975). Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.
Avdikos, V., & Iliopoulou, E. (2019). Community-led coworking spaces: From colocation to collaboration and collectivization. In R. Gill, T. Virani, & A. C. Pratt (Eds.), Creative hubs in question: Place, space and work in the creative economy. Palgrave Macmillan.
Avdikos, V., & Kalogeresis, A. (2016). Socio-economic profile and working conditions of freelancers in co-working spaces and work collectives: Evidence from the design sector in Greece. Area, 49(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12279
Blagoev, B., Costas, J., & Karreman, D. (2019). ‘We are all herd animals’: Community and organizationality in coworking spaces. Organization, 26(6), 894–916. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508418821
Bosma, J. R. (2022). Platformed professionalization: Labor, assets, and earning a livelihood through Airbnb. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 54(4), 595–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X211063492
Conor, B., Gill, R., & Taylor, S. (2015). Gender and creative labour. The Sociological Review, 1–22.
Cox, N., & Federici, S. (1975). Counter-planning from the kitchen: Wages for housework, a perspective on capital and the left. New York Wages for Housework Committee and Falling Wall Press. Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://monoskop.org/images/0/03/Cox_Nicole_Federici_Silvia_Counter-Planning_from_the_Kitchen_Wages_for_Housework_A_Perspective_on_Capital_and_the_Left.pdf
Dalla Costa, M., & James, S. (1972). Women and the subversion of the community. Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://files.libcom.org/files/Dalla%20Costa%20and%20James%20-%20Women%20and%20the%20Subversion%20of%20the%20Community.pdf
Daniels, A. K. (1987). Invisible work. Social Problems, 34(5), 403–415. https://doi.org/10.2307/800538
de Peuter, G., Cohen, S. N., & Saraco, F. (2017). The ambivalence of coworking: On the politics of an emerging work practice. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(6), 687–706. https://doi.org/10.1177/136754941773299
Duffy, M. (2007). Doing the dirty work: Gender, race, and reproductive labor in historical perspective. Gender and Society, 21(3), 313–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243207300764
Dunn, M. (2020). Making gigs work: Digital platforms, job quality and worker motivations. New Technology, Work and Employment, 35(2), 232–249. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12167
Federici, S. (2006). Precarious labor: A feminist viewpoint. Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://inthemiddleofthewhirlwind.wordpress.com/precarious-labor-a-feminist-viewpoint/
Ferrant, G., Pesando, L. M., & Nowaska, K. (2014). Unpaid care work: The missing link in the analysis of gender gaps in labour outcomes. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.oecd.org/dev/development-gender/Unpaid:care_work.pdf
Fletcher, J. K. (1998). Relational practice: A feminist reconstruction of work. Journal of Management Inquiry, 7(2), 163–186. https://doi.org/10.1177/105649269872012
Gill, R. (2007). Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat? New media work in Amsterdam a decade after the Web [Report prepared by Rosalind Gill for the Institute of Network Cultures]. Institute of Network Cultures.
Gregg, M., & Lodato, T. (2018). Managing community: Coworking, hospitality and the future of work. In B. Röttger-Rössler & J. Slaby (Eds.), Affect in relation. Families, places, technologies (pp. 175–196). Routledge.
Hesmondhalgh, D., & Baker, S. (2008). Creative work and emotional labour in the television industry. Theory, Culture and Society, 25(97). https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276408097798
Hochschild, A. R. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure. American Journal of Sociology, 85(3), 551–575. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2778583
Huws, U., Spencer, N. H., Syrdal, D. S., & Holts, K. (2018). Work in the European gig economy (FEPS – Foundation for European progressive studies). Europe and University of Hertfordshire.
McDowell, L. (2009). Working bodies: Interactive service employment and workplace identities. Wiley-Blackwell.
Merkel, J. (2015). Coworking in the city. Ephemera, 15(1), 121–139.
Merkel, J. (2019a). Curating strangers. In R. Gill, A. C. Pratt, & T. Virani (Eds.), Creative hubs in question (1st ed., pp. 51–68). Palgrave Macmillan.
Merkel, J. (2019b). ‘Freelance isn’t free.’ Co-working as a critical urban practice to cope with informality in creative labour markets. Urban Studies, 56(3), 526–547. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018782374
Moriset, B. (2014). Building new places of the creative economy. The rise of coworking spaces. In 2nd geography of innovation, international conference 2014. Utrecht University, Utrecht (The Netherlands). Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00914075/document
Mould, O., Vorley, T., & Liu, K. (2014). Invisible creativity? Highlighting the hidden impact of freelancing in London’s creative industries. European Planning Studies, 22(12), 2436–2455. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2013.790587
Pacchi, C., & Mariotti, I. (2021). Shared spaces or shelters for precarious workers? Coworking spaces in Italy. Professions & Professionalism, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.3911
Papageorgiou, A., Michailidou, Martha, Avdikos, V., & Merkel, J. (2022). Policy brief 2: The impact of coworking spaces on coworkers’ well-being and skills’ development. Panteion University. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366086637_Policy_Brief_2_The_impact_of_coworking_spaces_on_coworkers'_well-being_and_skills'_development
Prassl, J. (2018). Humans as a service: The promise and perils of work in the gig economy. University of Oxford.
Reuschke, D., Clifton, N., & Fisher, M. (2021). Coworking in homes – Mitigating the tensions of the freelance economy. Geoforum, 119, 122–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.01.005
Ruddick, S. (1989). Maternal thinking: Towards a politics of peace (Vol. 17, Issue 2, pp. 85–104). The Women’s Press.
Veldstra, C. (2020). Bad feeling at work: Emotional labour, precarity, and the affective economy. Cultural Studies, 34(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2018.1555269
Virani, T., & Gill, R. (2019). Hip hub? Class, race and gender in creative hubs. In R. Gill, A. C. Pratt, & T. Virani (Eds.), Creative hubs in question: Place, space and work in the creative economy. Palgrave Macmillan.
Webster, A. N., & Zhang, Q. (2020). Careers delivered from the kitchen? Immigrant women small-scale entrepreneurs working in the growing Nordic platform economy. NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 28(2), 113–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2020.1714725
Wittel, A. (2001). Toward a network sociality. Theory, Culture and Society, 18(6), 51–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632760101800600
Worth, N., & Karaagac, A. E. (2021). Accounting for absences and ambiguities in the freelancing labour relation. Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12491
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Papageorgiou, A., Michailidou, M. (2023). You Know That You’ve Succeeded in Your Role When Your Work Renders You Invisible: The Invisible Work of Community Management. In: Merkel, J., Pettas, D., Avdikos, V. (eds) Coworking Spaces. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42268-3_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42268-3_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-42267-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-42268-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)