Working in the comfort zone: Understanding coworking spaces as post-digital, post-work and post-tourist territory
Coworking spaces are contradictory places. Typically, they are constructed as connected, domestic-like places for hard work and as recreational, aestheticized destinations for individuals in search of work-life balance and opportunities for partial disconnection. This article contributes an immanent...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Digital Geography and Society |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666378324000254 |
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| author | Karin Fast André Jansson |
| author_facet | Karin Fast André Jansson |
| author_sort | Karin Fast |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Coworking spaces are contradictory places. Typically, they are constructed as connected, domestic-like places for hard work and as recreational, aestheticized destinations for individuals in search of work-life balance and opportunities for partial disconnection. This article contributes an immanent critique of coworking spaces through the overarching notion of “coworking space territoriality”. Our point of departure is the concept of post-digital territoriality, which captures how individuals and organizations in various ways try to counter the downsides of escalating digitalization and reclaim a sense of bounded place. To further elaborate the subversive potentials of coworking spaces, however, the “post-digital” is brought into dialogue with “post-work” and “post-tourist”; two other “post-” concepts that contain ideas and practices that characterize the contradictory nature of coworking spaces. At the intersection of all three facets of territoriality, we argue, the coworking space emerges as a spatially and socially bounded comfort zone. The suggested approach informs the ongoing conversation about the ambiguous role of coworking spaces in broader transformations of society, especially in terms of social inclusion and exclusion. The theoretical arguments are anchored in a substantial literature review as well as in first-hand empirical data from a “hot-desking ethnography” covering ten different coworking spaces in Oslo, Denver, and Palma de Mallorca. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4d25f8da471b4eb6b6ef6dc1d9aa705e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2666-3783 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Digital Geography and Society |
| spelling | doaj-art-4d25f8da471b4eb6b6ef6dc1d9aa705e2024-12-17T05:01:10ZengElsevierDigital Geography and Society2666-37832024-12-017100103Working in the comfort zone: Understanding coworking spaces as post-digital, post-work and post-tourist territoryKarin Fast0André Jansson1Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, SE 651 88 Karlstad, SwedenCorresponding author.; Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, SE 651 88 Karlstad, SwedenCoworking spaces are contradictory places. Typically, they are constructed as connected, domestic-like places for hard work and as recreational, aestheticized destinations for individuals in search of work-life balance and opportunities for partial disconnection. This article contributes an immanent critique of coworking spaces through the overarching notion of “coworking space territoriality”. Our point of departure is the concept of post-digital territoriality, which captures how individuals and organizations in various ways try to counter the downsides of escalating digitalization and reclaim a sense of bounded place. To further elaborate the subversive potentials of coworking spaces, however, the “post-digital” is brought into dialogue with “post-work” and “post-tourist”; two other “post-” concepts that contain ideas and practices that characterize the contradictory nature of coworking spaces. At the intersection of all three facets of territoriality, we argue, the coworking space emerges as a spatially and socially bounded comfort zone. The suggested approach informs the ongoing conversation about the ambiguous role of coworking spaces in broader transformations of society, especially in terms of social inclusion and exclusion. The theoretical arguments are anchored in a substantial literature review as well as in first-hand empirical data from a “hot-desking ethnography” covering ten different coworking spaces in Oslo, Denver, and Palma de Mallorca.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666378324000254Coworking spaceDigitalizationDigital disconnectionPost-tourismPost-digitalPost-work |
| spellingShingle | Karin Fast André Jansson Working in the comfort zone: Understanding coworking spaces as post-digital, post-work and post-tourist territory Digital Geography and Society Coworking space Digitalization Digital disconnection Post-tourism Post-digital Post-work |
| title | Working in the comfort zone: Understanding coworking spaces as post-digital, post-work and post-tourist territory |
| title_full | Working in the comfort zone: Understanding coworking spaces as post-digital, post-work and post-tourist territory |
| title_fullStr | Working in the comfort zone: Understanding coworking spaces as post-digital, post-work and post-tourist territory |
| title_full_unstemmed | Working in the comfort zone: Understanding coworking spaces as post-digital, post-work and post-tourist territory |
| title_short | Working in the comfort zone: Understanding coworking spaces as post-digital, post-work and post-tourist territory |
| title_sort | working in the comfort zone understanding coworking spaces as post digital post work and post tourist territory |
| topic | Coworking space Digitalization Digital disconnection Post-tourism Post-digital Post-work |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666378324000254 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT karinfast workinginthecomfortzoneunderstandingcoworkingspacesaspostdigitalpostworkandposttouristterritory AT andrejansson workinginthecomfortzoneunderstandingcoworkingspacesaspostdigitalpostworkandposttouristterritory |