Coworking spaces as postdigital territories: Prospects and paradoxes of the (dis)connected workplace

Keywords: Coworking space, connectivity, postdigital, territory, touristification, gentrification
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Research on coworking spaces (CWS) seem thorn between celebratory and critical approaches. In this paper, we argue that research needs to better account for the contradictions that signify the increasingly platformized CWS business. We show, first, how and why CWS can be understood and analyzed as complex postdigital territories. Following the arguments of Adams and Jansson (2022), we understand postdigital territoriality as a new type of sensibility toward, and problematization of, the digital regime. This character of CWS, in turn, opens up for new types of paradoxes and conflicts that deserve scrutiny. Second then, based on a research overview, we highlight three paradoxes that mark contemporary CWS. The work regime paradox (1) concerns the tension between, on the one hand, occupational privilege and eliteness, and, on the other hand, the precarization of work. The (dis)connectivity paradox (2) pertains to the post-digital appearance of CWS. Whereas digital connectivity is a precondition for membership, analog technology and disconnected activities are emblems of CWS. The place-political paradox (3), lastly, concerns the ambiguous role of CWS in urban (re)development. While asserting improved cities and places open to everyone, CWS contribute to what we shall call the “touristification of work”. It means that CWS offer workplaces in environments marked by aesthetic and emotional intensity that appeal to people with a certain habitus. In consequence, CWS promote gentrification. We conclude that the significance of these paradoxes can be extended; they may be used as principal nexuses to apply in critical research of postdigital territoriality at large.