Abstract
This chapter contributes to the debates about an alleged prevalence of neoliberal subjectivity in coworking. In our research, we followed professionals who previously worked in a community-led coworking space in the medium-sized city of Graz, Austria, and who have now left their former coworking space. Juxtaposing data gathered from the same interviewees in 2015/2016 and 2021/2023 helped us understand whether their exit suggests that coworking spaces reproduce individualist neoliberal subjectivities. We found that their decisions to leave coworking resulted from the demands for time and energy imposed on coworkers by unevenly distributed work necessary for the space’s reproduction, in part colliding with increasingly demanding professional trajectories and new familial constellations. Therefore, the coworkers’ ambivalence towards coworking in a community was not related to the individualisation of freelance work. Rather, our coworkers revealed that the choice to quit was emotionally challenging, as they wanted to keep sharing with others but, beyond a certain point, they could not. Our sample, we argue, contests the narrative of a prevailing neoliberal subjectivity in coworking, and yet highlights the ambivalences and challenges that practising work in a community poses to the professional subject.
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
Notes
- 1.
For a critical view on the matter, see Arvidsson (2018), who contends that practising community in coworking may be part of branding the imaginary of community (‘social branding’).
- 2.
These tasks may sound trivial, but we know from private conversations with the current host that these things make pedestrians curious; they stop and wonder what is happening there and what the [CLCS] actually is about.
- 3.
Something subsumed as a ‘post-capitalist practice’ by Smith (2020).
- 4.
Quote from former Coworker Caro (2021, 29:38) referring to the founder and first ‘host’ of Creation Mill.
References
Agamben, G. (1993). The coming community. University of Minnesota Press.
Arvidsson, A. (2018). Value and virtue in the sharing economy. The Sociological Review, 66(2), 289–301. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026118758531
Avdikos, V., & Iliopoulou, E. (2019). Community-led coworking spaces: From co-location to collaboration and collectivization. In R. Gill, A. C. Pratt, & T. E. Virani (Eds.), Creative hubs in question. Dynamics of virtual work (pp. 111–129). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10653-9_6
Avdikos, V., & Pettas, D. (2021). The new topologies of collaborative workspace assemblages between the market and the commons. Geoforum, 121, 44–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.02.012
Bandinelli, C. (2020). The production of subjectivity in neoliberal culture industries: The case of coworking spaces. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877919878449
Bandinelli, C., & Gandini, A. (2019). Hubs vs Networks in the creative economy: towards a ‘collaborative individualism’. In R. Gill, A. C. Pratt, & T. E. Virani (Eds.), Creative hubs in question. Dynamics of virtual work (pp. 89–110). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10653-9_5
Belk, R. (2010). Sharing. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(5), 715–734. https://doi.org/10.1086/612649
Bernhardt, A. (2021). Coworking-Atmosphären: Zum Zusammenspiel von kuratierten Räumen und der Sicht der Coworkenden als raumhandelnde Subjekte. Springer Fachmedien. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-35888-4
Brown, J. (2017). Curating the “Third Place”? Coworking and the mediation of creativity. Geoforum, 82, 112–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.04.006
Capdevila, I. (2013, December 9). Knowledge dynamics in localised communities: Coworking spaces as microclusters. SSRN. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from http://ssrn.com/abstract=2414121
de Peuter, G., Cohen, N. S., & 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/10.1177/1367549417732997
Gandini, A. (2015). The rise of coworking spaces: A literature review*. In P. Bialski, H. Derwanz, B. Otto, & H. Vollmer (Eds.), ‘Saving’ the city: Collective low-budget organising and urban practice (Ephemera, 15(1), pp. 193–205). Mayflybooks. https://ephemerajournal.org/contribution/rise-coworking-spaces-literature-review
Gandini, A., & Cossu, A. (2021). The third wave of coworking: ‘Neo-corporate’ model versus ‘resilient’ practice. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 24(2), 430–447. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549419886060
Garrett, L. E., Spreitzer, G. M., & Bacevice, P. A. (2017). Co-constructing a sense of community at work: The emergence of community in coworking spaces. Organization Studies, 38(6), 821–842. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840616685354
Genders, A. (2022). Precarious work and creative placemaking: Freelance labour in Bristol. Cultural Trends, 31(5), 433–447. https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2021.2009735
Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2006). The end of capitalism (as we knew it): A feminist critique of political economy; with a new introduction. University of Minnesota Press.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2008). Diverse economies: Performative practices for ‘other worlds’. Progress in Human Geography, 32(5), 613–632. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132508090821
Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2014). Rethinking the economy with thick description and weak theory. Current Anthropology, 55(9), 147–153. https://doi.org/10.1086/676646
Gill, R., & Pratt, A. (2008). In the social factory? Immaterial labour, precariousness and cultural work. Theory, Culture & Society, 25(7–8), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276408097794
Gritzas, G., & Kavoulakos, K. I. (2016). Diverse economies and alternative spaces: An overview of approaches and practices. European Urban and Regional Studies, 23(4), 917–934. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776415573778
Herod, A. (2001). Labor geographies: Workers and the landscapes of capitalism. Guilford Press.
Höfner, M., & Gatsinos, N. (2023). Unfinished sympathy: On the limitations of sharing as a work practice in community-led coworking. Cogent Social Sciences, 9(2), 2245236. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2023.2245236
Holmes, H. (2018). New spaces, ordinary practices: Circulating and sharing within diverse economies of provisioning. Geoforum, 88, 138–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.11.022
Johns, J., & Hall, S. M. (2020). ‘I have so little time […] I got shit I need to do’: Critical perspectives on making and sharing in Manchester’s FabLab. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 52(7), 1292–1312. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19897918
Kennedy, J. (2016). Conceptual boundaries of sharing. Information, Communication & Society, 19(4), 461–474. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1046894
McRobbie, A. (2009). Reflections on precarious work in the cultural sector. In B. Lange, A. Kalandides, B. Stöber, & I. Wellmann (Eds.), Governance der Kreativwirtschaft. Diagnosen und Handlungsoptionen (pp. 123–138). transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839409961-007
Merkel, J. (2015). Coworking in the city. In P. Bialski, H. Derwanz, B. Otto & H. Vollmer (Eds.), ‘Saving’ the city: Collective low-budget organising and urban practice (Ephemera, 15(1), pp. 121–139). Mayflybooks. https://ephemerajournal.org/contribution/coworking-city
Merkel, J. (2019a). Curating strangers. In R. Gill, A. C. Pratt, & T. E. Virani (Eds.), Creative hubs in question. Dynamics of virtual work (pp. 51–68). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10653-9_3
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
Mitchell, K., Marston, S. A., & Katz, C. (2003). Introduction: Life’s work: An introduction, review and critique. Antipode, 35(3), 415–442. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8330.00333
Morrow, O., & Dombroski, K. (2015). Enacting post-capitalist politics through the sites and practices of social reproduction. In K. Meehan & K. Strauss (Eds.), Precarious worlds: New geographies of social reproduction. University of Georgia Press.
Nakano, D., Shiach, M., Koria, M., Vasques, R., Gomes dos Santos, E., & Virani, T. E. (2020). Coworking spaces in urban settings: Prospective roles? Geoforum, 115, 135–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.04.014
Orel, M., & Alonso Almeida, D. M. (2019). The ambience of collaboration in coworking environments. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 21(4), 273–289. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRE-12-2018-0050
Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511807763
Resch, B., Hoyer, P., & Steyaert, C. (2021). Affective control in new collaborative work: Communal fantasies of purpose, growth and belonging. Organization Studies, 42(5), 787–809. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840620941616
Richardson, L. (2016). Sharing knowledge: Performing co-production in collaborative artistic work. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 48(11), 2256–2271. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X16653963
Sandoval, M. (2016). Fighting precarity with cooperation? Worker co-operatives in the cultural sector. New Formations, 88(88), 51–68. https://doi.org/10.3898/NEWF.88.04.2016
Schmidt, S., & Brinks, V. (2017). Open creative labs: Spatial settings at the intersection of communities and organisations. Creativity and Innovation Management, 26(3), 291–299. https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12220
Smith, T. S. J. (2020). ‘Stand back and watch us’: Post-capitalist practices in the maker movement. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 52(3), 593–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19882731
Spinuzzi, C. (2012). Working alone together: Coworking as emergent collaborative activity. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 26(4), 399–441. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651912444070
Vidaillet, B., & Bousalham, Y. (2020). Coworking spaces as places where economic diversity can be articulated: Towards a theory of syntopia. Organisation, 27(1), 60–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508418794003
Waters-Lynch, J., & Duff, C. (2021). The affective commons of coworking. Human Relations, 74(3), 383–404. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726719894633
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
Gatsinos, N., Höfner, M. (2023). Exhausting Coworking: On the Implications of Reproductive Work for Coworkers’ Subjectivities. In: Merkel, J., Pettas, D., Avdikos, V. (eds) Coworking Spaces. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42268-3_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42268-3_9
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)