Inequality Regimes in Coworking Spaces: How New Forms of Organising (Re)produce Inequalities

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Authors

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.
Original languageEnglish
JournalWork, Employment and Society
Number of pages21
ISSN0950-0170
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 21.03.2024

Bibliographical note

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.

    Research areas

  • coworking spaces, inequality regimes, new forms of organising
  • Management studies