Coworking and Research: How can both sides benefit from each other?
When I began my research in the field of coworking, I recognized, that there were only a few studies about the topic from the academic side. But I also noticed since that time, that there are more and more researchers interested in coworking. Nowadays, there are a couple of academics from different fields (such as sociologists, geographers or psychologists), who do research about coworking with different focuses (e.g. coworking as part of the sharing economy, the needs of the coworkers, or corporate coworking) and so the number of academic publications also increased. Here is a good overview about coworking from an academic perspective.
On the other hand, there are the practitioners, who are part of the coworking scene and who want to learn and discuss about different topics related to the field. There are several digital and physical platforms to exchange ideas and discuss, such as the Coworking Google group or several conferences, which reach from a regional level up to an international level. So there is a vibrant exchange, in which also researchers are involved. Furthermore there are great information websites, like Deskmag or the coworking resources from the Coworking Handbook (also with a statistics & surveys section).
But still, the exchange between researchers and practitioners is not as constantly as it could be and sometimes research is not noted by the practitioners, as studies are also often published in academic journals, which aren’t open access. So the diagnosis of Yann, board member of Coworking Switzerland, some days ago, does not surprise, that there is no ground-breaking research from the academic side so far.
Conclusion of the discussion at the Cowork 2016
One of the coworking researchers I met on my way is Johanna — also a PhD student in Sociology interested in the field of coworking for several years. For this year’s German coworking conference, the Cowork 2016, which took place in Hamburg last weekend, we decided to organize a barcamp session dedicated to this topic and firstly with regard to the German level. We were a small but active group and discussed mainly three ideas:
1. Networking and exchange between the researchers.
To start with the researchers’ side, as we aren’t that well connected yet: How could we improve this and work on “our” community? Idea: let’s have an online platform for exchanging ideas and discuss our research. First step: starting simply with a Facebook or Google group. There was also the idea of having more personal contact with each other, e. g. by meeting the day before a conference starts.
2. Research → Coworking: Establishing a database with academic literature about coworking
There are a couple of academic studies, but how to let people know, that they exist? Idea: let’s create a database with relevant academic publications regarding coworking. First step: creating a bibliography, collecting the coworking literature and sorting it regarding years and different topics, so that one can have a quick overview about the subjects.
3. Coworking → Research: Establishing a way, that practitioners can place own questions to be covered by research
Why should research not also take more account of problems and questions coming up directly from the side of the coworking spaces? Idea: let’s have a contact point, where questions can be posed and that makes the questions accessible for academics. For smaller topics, also students could be involved in the context of term papers or theses.
These are just the first ideas from the barcamp session, on which we are working now and we are still figuring out, which further steps to go. If you have any suggestions or want to be part of the discussion, please leave a comment or contact us!
P.S.: If you want to read more blogposts recapping the Cowork 2016 — they are and will be published here, or just search for the hashtag #cowork2016. An exciting post from Tobias, board member of the German Coworking Federation, about the barcamp session discussing the definition of coworking, you’ll find here. (In this session I recognized again, how much researchers can learn from such discussions, but that’s content for a new post.)
