TY - JOUR

T1 - Inequality Regimes in Coworking Spaces

T2 - How New Forms of Organising (Re)produce Inequalities

AU - Cnossen, Boukje

AU - Knappert, Lena

AU - Ortlieb, Renate

N1 - Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was partly supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) [grant number 407-12-008]. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.

PY - 2024/3/21

Y1 - 2024/3/21

N2 - Coworking is a rapidly growing worldwide phenomenon. While the coworking movement emphasises equality and emancipation, there is little known about the extent to which coworking spaces as new forms of organising live up to this ideal. This study examines inequality in coworking spaces in the Netherlands, employing Acker’s framework of inequality regimes. The findings highlight coworking-specific components of inequality regimes, in particular stereotyped assumptions regarding ‘ideal members’ that establish the bases of inequality, practices that produce inequality (e.g. through the commodification of community) and practices that perpetuate inequality (e.g. the denial of inequality). The study provides an update of Acker’s framework in the context of coworking and speaks, more broadly, to the growing body of literature on (in)equality in emerging organisational contexts.

AB - Coworking is a rapidly growing worldwide phenomenon. While the coworking movement emphasises equality and emancipation, there is little known about the extent to which coworking spaces as new forms of organising live up to this ideal. This study examines inequality in coworking spaces in the Netherlands, employing Acker’s framework of inequality regimes. The findings highlight coworking-specific components of inequality regimes, in particular stereotyped assumptions regarding ‘ideal members’ that establish the bases of inequality, practices that produce inequality (e.g. through the commodification of community) and practices that perpetuate inequality (e.g. the denial of inequality). The study provides an update of Acker’s framework in the context of coworking and speaks, more broadly, to the growing body of literature on (in)equality in emerging organisational contexts.

KW - coworking spaces

KW - inequality regimes

KW - new forms of organising

KW - Management studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188306734&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/b88336bd-dbb6-3984-8d08-785e35668283/

U2 - 10.1177/09500170241237188

DO - 10.1177/09500170241237188

M3 - Journal articles

JO - Work, Employment and Society

JF - Work, Employment and Society

SN - 0950-0170

ER -