Coworking : a community of work

Rus, Andrej (author), Orel, Marko (author)

The number of coworking spaces and the number of people who choose to work in them has exploded over the past few years, with numbers expected to double every year. What is fuelling this growth and where is the demand for coworking coming from? We tried to address this question by looking at the specific needs of the rising creative class, identifying their urgent need for uninhibited sharing of information, knowledge, ideas and also material resources. We argue that coworking spaces are favoured by the creative class, because they offer a community of work which facilitates the culture of sharing. To illustrate what it takes to establish such a community of work, we present a case study of the Creative Centre Poligon which suggests that community building is a multi-step process that needs careful management and plenty of time. We conclude that policy makers should not focus on building coworking spaces in order to combat youth unemployment but should rather support existing initiatives that have been built or are in the process of building up vibrant communities of work.

• Language: English
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2015
• Number of pages: Str. 1017-1038, 1244
• Numbering: Letn. 52, št. 6
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-85429
• UDC: 331.1
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 33783901
• Publication date in RUL: 20.09.2016

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa : revija za družbena vprašanja
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Visoka šola za politične vede, Visoka šola za politične vede, Visoka šola za sociologijo, politične vede in novinarstvo, Fakulteta za sociologijo, politične vede in novinarstvo, Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Število sodelovnih (coworking) prostorov in število ljudi, ki v njih delajo, je v zadnjih nekaj letih zraslo z neverjetno naglico, projekcije pa napovedujejo, da se bo njihovo število podvojilo vsako prihodnje leto. V članku se sprašujemo, kaj poganja to rast in od kod prihaja tako veliko povpraševanje po sodelovnih prostorih. Vprašanja smo se lotili tako, da smo analizirali specifične potrebe naraščajočega kreativnega razreda in identificirali njihovo zahtevo po neoviranem kroženju informacij, znanja, idej in tudi materialnih virov. Po našem mnenju kreativni razred vstopa v prostore, ker ponujajo delo v skupnosti, ki podpira razvoj kulture izmenjave idej in znanja. Da bi ponazorili, kako se oblikuje takšna skupnost dela v skupnosti, smo predstavili študijo primera Kreativnega centra Poligon, iz katere je mogoče sklepati, da poteka izgradnja take skupnosti v več korakih in da potrebuje pazljivo vodenje ter precej časa. Članek sklenemo s priporočilom, naj se politike ne osredotočajo na izgradnjo novih sodelovnih prostorov z namenom zaposlovanja mladih, temveč naj svojo podpor usmerijo v tiste pobude, ki so že izgradile ali so v procesu izgradnje dinamične skupnosti dela.

• Keywords: sodelo