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Coworking Spaces as Destinations and New Stakeholders in Hospitality Ecosystems. In N. Olbrich, J. Philipp, H. Thees, & H. Pechlaner (Hrsg.), Towards an Ecosystem of Hospitality – Location:City:Destination. Graffeg Limited. p. 140-147

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Merkel, J. (2022): Coworking Spaces as Destinations and New Stakeholders in Hospitality Ecosystems.
In N. Olbrich, J. Philipp, H. Thees, & H. Pechlaner (Hrsg.), Towards an Ecosystem of Hospitality – Location:City:Destination.
Graffeg Limited. S. 140-147
Coworking Spaces as destinations and new stakeholders in hospitality
ecosystems
Janet Merkel
Introduction
Work and business have long been a major reason to travel. Yet hospitality service providers and
tourism operators have usually seen their customers more motivated by leisure then work
purposes, and tourism was seen as synonymous with leisure. However, as work becomes more
mobile due to information and communication technologies and more people can choose where
to work from, we see a spatial fragmentation of work (Brennan-Horley, 2010). These changes
have huge implications. What we understand as an office, how and where people work or how
economic value is created, is changing and signifies a broader shift in the valuation of space as
a physical asset for business and economic value creation (Shearmur, 2018). For offices their
‘performative qualities’ (Richardson, 2021, p. 352) are becoming more important, whereby it is
less about their size and fixtures but more about how office spaces enable circulation, accidental
encounters and communication across different people and companies. These new ways of
working have changed the real estate industry (Harris, 2021). At the same time, we can see the
rise of a serviced office industry with the spread of so-called coworking spaces that cater to the
flexible workspace needs of freelance, mobile, or increasingly remote workers.
And, recently, more intersections between the newly emerged serviced office industry and the
hospitality industry can be observed. While cafés or coffee shops have long been a makeshift
workplace for mobile workers, a growing number of hotels integrates coworking facilities in their
lobbies (Vora, 2019). In many cities, restaurants or pubs started opening their facilities for daytime
coworking during slow time (Ryan, 2019), assisted through a growing number of online platforms
such as Spacemize or KettleSpace that broker remote workers with temporary workplaces in
restaurants, hotel lobbies or bars. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many hotels started offering
‘work-from-hotel’ or ‘workation’ packages to attract remote workers to get away from their home
offices. Many countries introduced tourism campaigns targeting remote workers and the
monotony of their home office situation.
1
In consequence, we can observe how ‘hostels,
restaurants, hotels and even co-working spaces are all experimenting with the mixed-use format
offering places to stay, work, sleep, meet, connect and experience’ (Ryan, 2019) and thus how
hospitality is reshaped through new socio-spatial patterns of mobile digital work.
This chapter argues that flexible workspaces such as coworking spaces are increasingly
becoming destinations — or are often a main reason for turning certain places into destinations
— and thus become an important part of the tourism infrastructure of cities (or regions) and their
hospitality ecosystem. It will argue that it is their role as social infrastructures, in facilitating local
encounters and in meeting others, preferably like-minded others that help alleviating the process
of arriving and immersing in a new place and that makes them important stakeholders within the
hospitality ecosystems of cities. The aim of this chapter is to add to a critical understanding of the
material complexities of contemporary tourist practices and its consequences for hospitality and
tourism.
Coworking spaces as destinations
Since the mid 2000s, we see the rise of coworking spaces in cities worldwide (Merkel, 2015).
These flexible on-demand rentable office spaces where people work alongside each other and
share amenities such as a kitchen, library and social areas cater to specific needs of freelance
workers, small business and increasingly remote workers who are employees but can choose
where to work (Grazian, 2020). Their rise can be explained by several factors: mainly the
liberalisation of employment relationships since the 1970s and the expansion of nonstandard
1
See, for example, Norway’s ‘workation campaign’. https://www.visitnorway.com/plan-your-
trip/workation/ (accessed September 26, 2021).
Merkel, J. (2022): Coworking Spaces as Destinations and New Stakeholders in Hospitality Ecosystems.
In N. Olbrich, J. Philipp, H. Thees, & H. Pechlaner (Hrsg.), Towards an Ecosystem of Hospitality – Location:City:Destination.
Graffeg Limited. S. 140-147
forms of employment, the diffusion of information and telecommunication technology and the
agglomeration of knowledge-intensive economies in cities, which led to the spatial fragmentation
of work through the increase of new working arrangements such as freelance or self-employed
work, remote work, teleworking or digital work (Grazian, 2020; Merkel, 2019b). Coworking spaces
thus represent a major shift in the socio-spatial patterns of work. Even though the Covid-19
pandemic has had a significant impact on coworking spaces, their growth is expected to be even
higher due to an increase in remote workers who, after the pandemic-induced home office
experience, prefer to “work-near-home” instead of commuting to their stationary offices (Brady,
2020; The Economist, 2021). While coworking spaces grew worldwide from a dozen spaces in
2005 to over 23.000 in 2021, their numbers are expected to grow to over 40.000 by 2024
(Coworking Resources, 2020).
As flexible workspaces are becoming the new normal for an increasing number of workers,
coworking is also developing into a nomadic and touristic practice (Aroles et al., 2020; Chevtaeva
& Denizci-Guillet, 2021). For example, many international serviced office brands such as
WeWork, the TechHub franchise or the Impact Hub network encourage their members to travel
to other coworking spaces in their network and to experience working from somewhere else. The
travelling digital worker is most prominently encapsulated in the social figure of the digital nomad
‘whose work does not tie them to any specific place (or to a specific itinerary), and who therefore
travel while working’ (Sutherland & Jarrahi, 2017, p. 2 cited in Aroles et al., 2020). Digital nomads
are now met with an increasing supply of coworking and coliving facilities for extended
‘workations’ or ‘coworkation’ that cater to their mobile lifestyle of work while traveling and travel
while working – however, there is a crucial distinction: while nomadic workers typically travel by
their work, digital nomads travel while working (Aroles et al., 2020) and are driven by the search
of the ‘good life’ (Müller, 2016).
It is within the phenomenon of digital nomadism, that the idea of coworking spaces as destinations
is currently most pronounced. These coworking hotspots combine living, working and leisure
activities with a sense of community, ready for digital nomads to plug into at any time (Chevtaeva
& Denizci-Guillet, 2021). While digital nomadism is often associated with exotic locations like
Thailand, Bali, Barbados or hotspots like surf spots in Portugal or Peru, and where several
national governments started introducing special visas to attract digital nomads (Suri, 2020), there
is also an increase in coworking spaces offering work and travel packages for an extended work
stay in rural areas (see, for example, Mokrin House in Serbia or the rising number of rural
coworking spaces in Germany) (Bähr et al., 2020). These spaces now raise hopes of stimulating
processes of rural regeneration. For example, Bosworth reports from rural coworking spaces
providers in the U.K.: ‘Venues seeking to attract digital nomads to stay for a few weeks at a time
were acutely aware of the value that they generate for the local area. One commented, “It’s
bringing people here, has a pretty big impact so I estimate that for the local business every year
we generate about €1.2 million for accommodation, for food, for transportation, for stuff that
people buy here.”’ (Bosworth et al., 2021). So, while sometimes coworking spaces are the
destination (as for example in rural areas or with workation hubs in exotic locations), mostly they
add to the experience of a place as a destination and might stimulate economic development.
Chevtaeva (2021, p. 207) concludes that ‘coworking and coliving space can be an attraction of
destinations’ and that tourism boards should ‘invest in relationships with coworking businesses,
just as it is commonly practiced with theme parks and hotels.’
Coworking spaces as social infrastructures
The main reason for people to work from coworking spaces, besides the provision of a suitable
work infrastructure, is their role in facilitating encounters and meeting others, preferably other like-
minded mobile workers they can relate to culturally and socially. Several studies underline that ‘a
sense of community’ and ‘feelings of belonging’ are the main motives for coworkers joining a
coworking space or workation hub (Chevtaeva & Denizci-Guillet, 2021; Garrett et al., 2017). Many
coworking spaces engage in various hospitality practices to facilitate encounters through the
spatial design, amenities, the organisation of events or the personal introduction through
coworking hosts or community managers (Merkel, 2019a; Richardson, 2021).
Merkel, J. (2022): Coworking Spaces as Destinations and New Stakeholders in Hospitality Ecosystems.
In N. Olbrich, J. Philipp, H. Thees, & H. Pechlaner (Hrsg.), Towards an Ecosystem of Hospitality – Location:City:Destination.
Graffeg Limited. S. 140-147
Therefore, coworking spaces are also to be considered as ‘gateways’ into a city, facilitating
contact with locals and getting valuable local information, and, thus, alleviate processes of arriving
and immersing in a new place, even if only temporary, and in creating a touristic experience that
is close to the local culture and way of life. Often, coworking spaces are described as ‘homes
away from home’ (Ross & Ressia, 2015). The atmosphere of the ‘home’ is aesthetically and
materially reflected in the design of coworking spaces with their lamps, social areas with sofas
and armchairs, carpets, libraries, and the communal kitchen. Often informal events are organised
to strengthen that ‘sense of community’ and ‘sense of belonging’ among coworkers (Spreitzer et
al., 2017). Also Ray Oldenburg’s concept of third places is used to categorise coworking spaces
as informal meeting places between the outside of the home (first place) and the workplace
(second place) that facilitate social interaction, community building, and social support in
neighbourhoods (Oldenburg, 1999). Third places – whether in commercial premises or public
buildings – are part of a city’s social infrastructure (Klinenberg, 2019; Latham & Layton, 2019)
that foster local, face-to-face interactions and mutual support with wider implications for the social
capital in neighbourhoods and cities.
So, a crucial function of coworking spaces can be their role as social infrastructures because they
provide possibilities to make new social connections and build social relationships in cities. The
notion of social infrastructures has recently become a prominent concept in urban sociology
where Klinenberg (2019) argues that public libraries, parks, playgrounds, swimming pools and
sidewalks are crucial social infrastructures in cities because they are physical locations where
people can assemble, make social connections, and build social relationships that are vital for
the civic life of cities and might help fight inequalities. A social infrastructure perspective
interrogates the physical conditions that give rise to and facilitate social activity, interaction, and
public life in cities, and which are essential for building community, cooperation, and common
purpose among people. Because coworking spaces create ‘affordances for social connections’
(Latham & Layton, 2019, p. 3) and are places where people meet to socialize, they matter as
sites for inclusion, belonging and the creation of social relationships. And thus, might also have
wider social, cultural, and economic implications in urban development.
Outlook: Coworking spaces as new stakeholders in hospitality ecosystems
Broader social trends have thoroughly affected the “scope, origins and destinations of tourist
flows, the motives and styles of travel, the structure of the tourist industry, and the relationship
between tourism and ordinary life” (Cohen & Cohen, 2012, pp. 2178–2179). Two of these broader
trends – digitalization and new work arrangements – let to the rise of mobile workers and a
serviced office industry that has huge ramifications for the hospitality industry. First, we see a rise
in new types of travellers – mobile workers who look for short-term flexible work infrastructures
and digital nomads who combine working, travel, and leisure in extended stays in destinations
that offer tailored ‘workations’ with shared coliving and coworking facilities. Second, coworking
gets more intertwined with the classic tourist infrastructures as hotels, restaurants, cafés, bars,
or even cultural institutions open their spaces to temporary coworking to attract these new mobile
workers and travellers. Third, coworking spaces can act as social infrastructures as they are sites
where people can meet to socialize. And fourth, coworking spaces add to the ‘creative
atmosphere’ of a place which has become a crucial component in recent tourism development
strategies (Richards, 2020). Furthermore, these spaces and their services play a crucial role in
making places attractive for entrepreneurs, in enabling a wide variety of economic activities and
turning cities into entrepreneurial destinations (Pechlaner et al., 2018). Thus, cities aiming to
develop hospitality and tourism need to consider the needs of mobile workers, flexible working
practices and of coworking spaces into their destination development.
The aim of the chapter was to show where coworking intersects and co-creates value with
hospitality and tourism and to demonstrate that coworking spaces are becoming important
stakeholders in local hospitality ecosystems. The proposed notion of a hospitality ecosystem
highlights that a multitude of actors, resources and infrastructures enable and facilitate hospitality
and meaningful touristic experiences in a city. It is based on the premise that value creation in
hospitality is not just the purview of individual companies but increasingly co-constructed between
various actors who are interconnected and whose cooperation is incentivised through the
Merkel, J. (2022): Coworking Spaces as Destinations and New Stakeholders in Hospitality Ecosystems.
In N. Olbrich, J. Philipp, H. Thees, & H. Pechlaner (Hrsg.), Towards an Ecosystem of Hospitality – Location:City:Destination.
Graffeg Limited. S. 140-147
recognition of resource interdependence within an ecosystem (Giannopoulos et al., 2020). The
emergence of serviced offices and the specific services they provide have reshaped this
hospitality ecosystem as it brings new customers and new demands on touristic infrastructures.
As the pandemic will likely impact the future of work and lead to an increase in remote working
for employees, it is estimated that the number of digital nomads and mobile workers who travel
with their work will only increase. On a more critical note, then, mobile flexible work practices
must be scrutinised in relation to the sustainability of their activities and mobilities. Future
research should also focus on how flexible working and digital nomadism are connected to
housing, public transport, and overall, the hospitality ecosystem in cities.
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Key learnings:
- flexible work leads to an increase in work-related travel and tourism
- hospitality industry adapts to needs of flexible work travel
- flexible workspaces are becoming important actors in hospitality ecosystems
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Full-text available
  • Feb 2024
Recent socioeconomic and technological developments with significant impacts on work organization and labor relations, along with changes in the work/life relationship, have driven the emergence and rapid growth of new working spaces (NeWSps). Starting with a review of the multidisciplinary literature, we seek to identify and understand the various categories and related concepts arising from non-traditional workspaces and their evolution. Concepts such as “third place” as an alternative to home (“first place”) and workplaces of production (“second place”) refer to environments that facilitate informal social relations and provide a sense of community. Alongside the emergence of third places for work, discussions about hybrid places are arising as a spatial concept that combines two or more predefined NeWSps typologies, either with each other or with inherently tourism and hospitality infrastructure. The typologies presented serve as analytical tools to improve the understanding of this growing phenomenon, foster its diversity and integration, and contribute to future research on NeWSps and their socioeconomic implications.
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... Various online platforms, such as Spacemize and KettleSpace, have emerged to help digital nomads find information and opportunities related to work, local lifestyle, workspace booking and social friendship (Merkel, 2022). In addition, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitality businesses offering "work from home" or "workcation" packages with co-working space operators have gained a share of the digital nomadism market (Zhou et al., 2024). ...
What should the travel industry do as the world becomes more of an office?
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2024
Purpose This study aims to guide travel agencies to adapt their services to the expectations of digital nomads and to create new packages. Design/methodology/approach This study, which is undertaken with the social constructivism approach, is designed as a case study. Secondary data on Remote Year as the case, experiences were obtained within the Trustpilot application. Four hundred and eighty-seven useable comments made between 2016, the year of its establishment, and 2024 were accepted as documents. These data were supported by interviews. Findings The findings of the study basically identify that the services provided by RY provide physical, social and psychological support to the digital nomad and are therefore preferred. Originality/value This study attempts to address the lack of supply-side studies in the digital nomadism literature. The concept of NomadEase was introduced to the literature and the need for entrepreneurs to manage physical, social and psychological resources together and in harmony was emphasized.
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... The spread of remote working practices during the pandemic accelerated these 'leisure-oriented mobilities' (Alexandri and Janoschka, 2020) as workers from affluent countries of the West have been coming to Athens to exercise their 'economic superiority'. CWSs serve as 'destinations' (Merkel, 2022), contributing to an ingrowing and fragmented serviced office industry. With the limited presence of large coworking firms, smaller CWSs in Athens have capitalised on this trend: ...
Exploring the effects of coworking in two European cities: Financialisation flows and consumption patterns in Athens and Berlin
Article
  • Jun 2024
  • EUR URBAN REG STUD
With the continuous deregulation of state functions in processes of neoliberal urban production, coworking spaces have emerged as autonomous actors in processes of urban development, as they appear to conglomerate flows of freelancers, startuppers, remote workers, digital nomads and financial capital from private investors and large corporations. As such, these actors could play an important role in the organisation of urban activities that could have multiple impacts on the urban economy. Tracing the effects of coworking spaces in metropolitan cities, this qualitative analysis is focused on coworking spaces in Athens and Berlin, two cities characterised by different development trajectories, socioeconomic and cultural contexts and positions within the European and global urban hierarchy. The results reveal that coworking spaces demonstrate high levels of adaptability to the specific characteristics of the urban contexts in which they are located and play a dual role by (1) shaping and channelling the consumption patterns of coworkers while also (2) operating as mediators and facilitators of multilevel private investment and financialisation processes.
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... We acknowledge that a variety of spaces could be explored as sites at which coworking can be practiced, and where potentials of coworking might be explored. Those can be maker spaces, hackerspaces, libraries or even more transient and less dedicated spaces such as cafés, hotel lobbies, stations, or private homes (Merkel, 2022;Reuschke et al., 2021;Shearmur et al., 2021). In our own research, however, we focus on small, independent, and often communityled coworking spaces that are mainly frequented by freelance workers and invited contributions for this volume that similarly investigate the potentials of smaller spaces. ...
Coworking Spaces: Alternative Topologies and Transformative Potentials
Chapter
  • Nov 2023
Since Clay Spinuzzi’s “Working Alone Together” (2012), which is considered the first academic publication on coworking, multidisciplinary scholarship on coworking as a socio-spatial practice has developed a rich body of empirical research over the last decade. Researchers from many academic disciplines have provided the coworking literature with multiple accounts, exploring the diverse functions and impacts of coworking spaces. Yet a growing concern in academic debates is the lack of theorization and coworking research is often exposed to a critique of being overly descriptive, and so it merely fails to fully grasp and unpack the processes that make coworking a transformative medium of social and economic relations. Although the focus and the nucleus of coworking spaces is and should continue to be labor, the dynamics of coworking have multiple manifestations that intersect with various processes of spatial development.
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... Workation is perceived as promising for the tourism sector (Wiranatha et al., 2020;Lietzau/Puhe, 2021). In literature it is mentioned as one influence to reshape hospitality through new socio-spatial patterns of mobile digital work (Merkel, 2022). Especially during the pandemic and off-season times, workation opens opportunities not only for new businesses but also for established hotel chains through business models such as the short-or long-term rental of empty suites as private offices with additional hotel amenities (TUI, 2022;Tophotel, 2021). ...
Work from anywhere: traditional workation, coworkation and workation retreats: a conceptual review
Article
  • Oct 2022
“Workation” is a new type of remote work in response to the increasing digitalization and flexibilization of work. By facilitating a combination of the domains of work, recreation and private life with an optional touristic-oriented pursuit, workation spaces promote flexible work practices and have significant impact on the working lives of knowledge workers, companies and several industries worldwide. While the original task of the real estate industry is to provide jobs in the form of offices, new players are suddenly entering the market, such as the hotel industry. This interesting mixture opens up exciting research approaches. There exists a rather extensive knowledge gap in literature understanding these work–leisure activities. Particularly striking is the lack of a clear classification of workation and little empirical evidence on workation exists. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a coherent descriptive basis, definition and classification of workation based on first empirical evidence by outlining a case study. The conceptual analysis finds that workation can be categorized into three types – traditional workation, coworkation and workation retreat – each with different characteristics. Finally, affected industries are studied and effects from workation on economies are shown. By providing a first taxonomy of workation, this paper might serve as a basis for further research.
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Factors Increasing Place Attractiveness for Residential Mobility of Digital Nomads
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Apr 2025
The digital economy has had a profound and multifaceted impact on the work of professionals in almost all industries. This has led to significant changes in the form of changes in the skills and competencies required of modern professionals (increased demand for digital skills, focus on soft skills, continuous learning), changes in the nature of work (remote work and flexible schedules, automation and robotization of routine tasks, collaboration and networking among professionals), and changes in the structure and transformation of the labor market. Existing occupations, increased competition in the context of globalization of the labor market, and the emergence of new occupations related to the development and implementation of new technologies have led to changes in the structure of the labor market. This includes the transformation of existing professions and increased competition against the backdrop of the globalization of the labor market and the emergence of new professions related to the development and implementation of new technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to remote work, exposing people of all ages, professions, and income levels to the possibility of living in one area and working in another. As a result, highly mobile professionals have emerged, seeking the best place to live and work, using flexible financial instruments, and performing their duties online. This paper explores the factors contributing to the increasing appeal of residence for digital nomads. It examines theoretical models of stakeholder involvement in the development of an ecosystem for digital nomads and provides a clarification of the term "digital nomad." The analysis of ratings and rankings of the most suitable cities for this social category identifies the key criteria they use when selecting a place to live. The authors of this study propose a comprehensive approach for attracting digital nomads to the region, drawing from positive international experiences. This approach encompasses work on economic, social, infrastructural, administrative, and legislative factors. A significant focus has been placed on the particularities of Russian regions, with the objective of enhancing their appeal to this particular demographic.
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Digital nomadism and cities: exploring the production of mobility infrastructures in Barcelona
Article
  • Jan 2024
This study explores digital nomadism (DN) from the perspective of local service providers. Anchored in the new mobilities paradigm, it aims to explore the territorial impacts of DN in Barcelona, focusing on coworking and coliving businesses. How do service providers perceive digital nomads? How do they adapt their businesses to digital nomads? Three main findings emerge. Firstly, this article pinpoints the importance of shifting the focus from identity of digital nomads to the practice of working remotely while travelling in order to have a more nuanced discussion over the local impacts of DN. Secondly, it presents six adaptation strategies of local businesses and their broader implications for the city, including the emergence of new services, the reconfiguration of the built environment, and ongoing gentrification processes. Thirdly, the study sheds light on the complex interactions between public and private sectors in adapting urban services to digital nomads, often at the expense of the local communities.
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Co-creating high-value hospitality services in the tourism ecosystem: Towards a paradigm shift
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2020
Purpose: Adopting the service-ecosystem perspective, this is the first empirical study conceptualising tourism as an ecosystem. Based on the institutional theory and focusing on high-value hospitality services, it aims to unveil the components of the multilayer tourism ecosystem that enable stakeholders’ interactions at and between different levels. Methods: Applying a qualitative research design in Rhodes, the study focuses on value co-creation to explore the structure of the tourism ecosystem and its underlying mechanisms. Triangulation and bracketing were employed to ensure the reliability of the data collected through ten semi-structured interviews with high-ranking tourism policy-makers and hotel/restaurant managers. Results: The results led to the identification of the three-level service ecosystem (micro, meso, macro) that incorporates myriads of actions and interactions shaping tourism activity in order to provide high-value hospitality services. The analysis also revealed the institutional logic that permeates all levels (rules, norms, practices, meanings and symbols). Implications: The study goes beyond the destination-visitor and firm-guest interactions to incorporate multiple stakeholders co-creating value in the tourism ecosystem, including tourists, locals and employees, hotels and restaurants, DMOs and other organisations supporting the tourism value chain. It sheds light on the new paradigm shift from the notion of tourism industry to the concept of an inclusive tourism ecosystem, paving the way for future research to address global challenges in the COVID-19 era.
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Coordinating office space: Digital technologies and the platformization of work
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2020
Digital technologies enable the dispersal of office work from physical office buildings. The same technologies involve a counter tendency of concentration where offices are shared by different businesses, often for short periods, via the ‘space as service’ model. These opposing tendencies of workspace dispersal and concentration indicate the contingencies of technologies of work, in which their operations are mutually shaped by workplaces. Understanding what a technology of work is requires examining its situated actions and spaces of activity, like the office. Yet, the spatial characteristics of the present-day office demonstrate that ‘situatedness’ is by no means a straightforward vehicle for understanding contemporary technologies of work. Digital technologies tend less to divide space according to a specific function (i.e. work–life division), and more to create spaces of coordination that can adjust the definition of purposeful activity. Such spaces of coordination constitute the platformization of work with digital technologies in which spatial and temporal processes for instituting work extend beyond a single organization. Including but exceeding the ‘gig economy’ and ‘platform labour’, platformization indicates a wider reorganization of work through technologies that produces flexible arrangements of space and time, creating forms of independence, interdependence and dependency that challenge orders of work–life division.
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Designing creative places: The role of creative tourism
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2020
  • ANN TOURISM RES
Creativity has become a strategy in the making of places, with cities and regions seeking to increase their attractiveness to the creative class, support the creative industries or to become ‘creative cities’. We examine how creativity has been utilised in placemaking in tourism destinations through different design strategies. A shift in theoretical focus from creative individuals towards creative districts or places is noted, in line with the developing field of creative placemaking. Case studies of creative development indicate strategies need to be sensitive to local context, and follow some basic design principles. Creative placemaking includes consideration of resources, meaning and creativity, driven by clear vision, enabling participation, leaving space for creative expression and developing a coherent narrative.
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‘Becoming mainstream’: the professionalisation and corporatisation of digital nomadism
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2020
  • NEW TECH WORK EMPLOY
Digital nomadism, a mobile lifestyle that encompasses a wide array of professional endeavours, ranging from corporate remote workers to digital entrepreneurs, has benefitted from a steadily growing appeal. Despite this, there is a dearth of research exploring the premises and development of digital nomadism. This paper is concerned with the image of digital nomadism, its underlying structure and practices, and its relation to the current world of work. In order to explore these aspects and problematise digital nomadism, the paper traces the development of digital nomadism and takes inspiration from the Deleuzo‐Guattarian image of the nomad. Adopting a qualitative approach to content analysis, this paper argues that digital nomadism is becoming increasingly institutionalised and professionalised, and, as such, is distant from the emancipatory dimension underlying its discourse and many of its cultural representations. Overall, digital nomadism appears as an extension of capitalist logics, rather than an alternative to them.
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Thank God it’s Monday: Manhattan coworking spaces in the new economy
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2020
  • THEOR SOC
Although it has been argued that digital technology liberates workers from spatial constraints, the materiality of physical space still matters in the new economy. In this article I emphasize the importance of place in the digital age by highlighting the growth of coworking spaces where small startups, telecommuters, and freelancers rent flexible office space on a month-to-month basis. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Manhattan to show how coworking participants make use of these spaces as social and spatial resources for mobile work. Coworking spaces rely on aesthetics, ideology, and style to brand their workspaces to members while promoting new-economy work as meaningful, collaborative, creative, and fun. Recent years have given rise to the audience segmentation of the coworking marketplace as competitors target niche communities underserved by more mainstream offerings, while others attempt to repurpose otherwise underutilized commercial spaces into revenue-generating coworking ventures. The rapid expansion of coworking in places like Manhattan exemplifies how digitization has reshaped the uses of urban space around mobile work in the new economy.
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Social infrastructure and the public life of cities: Studying urban sociality and public spaces
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2019
Libraries, laundrettes, and lidos. Pizzerias, plazas, and playgrounds. Sidewalks, swimming pools, and schools. These are just some of the kinds of spaces and facilities that contribute to the public life of cities. Drawing on the arguments of the sociologist Eric Klinenberg, this article develops the concept of “social infrastructure” as a way to research and value these kinds of spaces. Social infrastructure helps in recognising the public dimensions of often overlooked and undervalued spaces. It draws attention to the breadth, depth, and textures of sociality that can be afforded by different urban environments. In developing the concept of social infrastructure, this article pulls together four related strands of social scientific inquiry: work on infrastructure; publicness and public space; sociality and encounter; and the politics of provision. An infrastructural approach to the topic of public space presents geographers with some productive tools for understanding the public life of cities.
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Digital nomads' lifestyles and coworkation
Article
  • Sep 2021
Digital nomadism has facilitated the development of new services and products. Coworking spaces are emerging businesses in popular nomad destinations. Digital nomads are attracted to such spaces because they serve as a venue for lifestyle-based bonding with like-minded people. This study brings digital nomads to the tourism agenda and defines this concept in the scope of tourism and hospitality research. To enhance the understanding of digital nomads as tourists, this study connects digital nomads' lifestyles with the perceived value of coworking spaces during travel. Qualitative inductive content analysis was conducted through semistructured interviews with participants. Relationships between lifestyles and coworkation experiences were discovered.
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‘Freelance isn’t free.’ Co-working as a critical urban practice to cope with informality in creative labour markets
Article
  • Sep 2018
For more than a decade, co-working spaces have proliferated in cities worldwide. The paper discusses co-working as a critical urban practice because these spaces give support to the rising number of freelance workers in culture and creative industries. Freelance workers are an ‘invisible’ workforce whose impact often remains ‘hidden’ (Mould et al., 2014), who are not sufficiently protected through social welfare regulations and do not enjoy the same social entitlements as employed workers. This paper uses the concept of informality to highlight ongoing informalisation processes of employment relationships as well as informal working practices in creative labour markets. It discusses the emergence of co-working as a practice of collective self-help and self-organisation to cope with and to potentially overcome the informality, uncertainty and risks associated with independent work. It argues that co-working can be seen in line with other practices of informal urbanism that become more prevalent in European and North American cities because of the lack of affordable housing, the retrenchment of the social welfare state and the imposed conditions of ‘austerity urbanism’ (Peck, 2012).
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