Taxonomy of collaborative workspaces

The main outcome of the project is that we have been able to collect sufficient data to model a taxonomy of contemporary coworking spaces. We were able to derive three defining features of coworking and four distinct categories that helped clarify the concept and can be used to identify and evaluate coworking spaces, as well as to distinguish them from related forms of shared workspace environments.

What is more, the ethnography and subsequent questionnaires revealed that contemporary coworking spaces have hybridised to the level that the differentiation factors are blurred to the extent that it is complicated to distinguish various models. The research has, therefore, supported the hypothetical claim that contemporary coworking environments have transformed into shared office spaces that are not necessarily community-based and have limited capacity in supporting horizontal interactions between workspace users. That being said, we found implications that coworking spaces often purposely portray an image of community and collaboration principles while their workspaces in practice lack the sufficient mediation support to steer encounters into the development of dynamic social networks of cooperation. In parallel with share washing phenomenon, where sharing and community-orientated platforms deliberately pursue economic self-interest rather than support peer-to-peer services, community-washing can be used to sell non-existing communities in shared workspaces.

The project has enabled the PI to successfully pave his path to the regional coworking industry and got acquainted with key individuals in the field. These outcomes are important for future work on a related departmental project that obtained the funding via the GAČR scheme and to continue the scholarly work on other related aspects. As of August 2020, two outcome papers are under review and not yet published.