Victor Cabral’s dissertation “A look inside the coworking space. The social and entrepreneurial relevance of new flexible office space environments.” is a research project that aimed at opening the ‘black box’ of coworking spaces in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of what coworking spaces are and what they provide their tenants. The data for this project, which focused particularly on coworking spaces in Amsterdam, was collected through semi-structured interviews and observations, as well as through content analysis of coworking space websites and of chat applications of coworking communities.
A key finding of this project is the importance of the organizational set-up and managerial interventions by coworking space management staff that may lead to a variety of benefits for coworking space tenants. These benefits range from business development opportunities to facilitating access to additional social networks. In particular, the role of the physical design of coworking spaces, and the variety of management interventions aimed at encouraging community building contribute to the formation of social capital.
The findings of this project indicate that coworking spaces are becoming increasingly relevant for self-employed individuals, start-ups, and also increasingly for employed workers, who want to be (at least partially) embedded in, or have access to, additional professional social networks. Other outcomes of this project illustrate that coworking spaces must work closely with their tenants in turbulent times (such as during the COVID-19 pandemic) to find new opportunities and maintain a sense of community. This project is another step towards reevaluating both the meaning and value of workplaces and social networks in knowledge-intensive urban economies.
The thesis can be accessed here: https://dare.uva.nl/search?identifier=c88b7f0a-939b-4292-9236-34c94824568c