Exploring new and digitalized work practices

The beginning of 2020 brought one of the most extensive economic and social upheavals in modern history. While the Covid-19 pandemic can be understood as a global disruptor of virtually everything connected with contemporary society, it changed and transformed everything that we as humanity took for granted. The novel virus shifted and stirred the relationship of individuals with the living environment, from the daily commute in urban or rural areas to how individuals tend to work. The pandemic has compelled organizations to implement telework for their employees to comply with the need for physical distancing, resulting in what could be described as one of the most extensive work experiments of our time.

Following trends of changed knowledge work practices that surfaced due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the enlarged need for a scholarly debate on the future of work, the Faculty of Business Administration established a Center for Workplace Research in autumn 2020. The centre’s mission is to explore contemporary workplace settings and the topics related to organizational sociology, socioeconomics and urban studies. The entity operates as a centre of excellence within the platform of the Institute of Management at the Faculty of Business Administration and conducts applied research and related advisors for individuals, organizations and the public sector. In April 2021, the centre has received internal funding to first and foremost expand the research capacity, its academic outreach and visibility with both industry players as well as with policymakers. That said, the aim of the funding is to actively contribute to the knowledge gap on the transformation of work environments by a) kicking off a scholarly debate on how have coworking spaces transformed during a major Covid-19 disruption and exploring trends around the digitalization of community-purposed workplaces, b) carrying on a study that combines three qualitative research approaches that will enable to conduct an exploratory study, and c) construct a competitive consortium of partners and seek a more considerable funding opportunity to enable the centre to carry on the work beyond the scope of internal funding.