TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘We are all herd animals'

T2 - Community and organizationality in coworking spaces

AU - Blagoev, Blagoy

AU - Costas, Jana

AU - Kärreman, Dan

PY - 2019/11/1

Y1 - 2019/11/1

N2 - This article develops an understanding of coworking spaces as organizational phenomena. Based on an ethnography of betahaus in Berlin, we demonstrate how coworking spaces not only provide a sense of community but also pattern the work activities of their members. We theorize this finding by drawing on the emergent literature on organizationality. Our contribution is twofold. First, we challenge current understandings of coworking spaces as neutral containers for independent work. Instead, we show how coworking incorporates the disposition of becoming organizational. That is, coworking spaces can frame and organize work and may even provide a basis for collective action. Second, we add to research on organizing outside traditional organizations by drawing attention to the complex and shifting interplay of formal and informal relationships in such settings. In doing so, we inform current debates about new forms of organization and organizing.

AB - This article develops an understanding of coworking spaces as organizational phenomena. Based on an ethnography of betahaus in Berlin, we demonstrate how coworking spaces not only provide a sense of community but also pattern the work activities of their members. We theorize this finding by drawing on the emergent literature on organizationality. Our contribution is twofold. First, we challenge current understandings of coworking spaces as neutral containers for independent work. Instead, we show how coworking incorporates the disposition of becoming organizational. That is, coworking spaces can frame and organize work and may even provide a basis for collective action. Second, we add to research on organizing outside traditional organizations by drawing attention to the complex and shifting interplay of formal and informal relationships in such settings. In doing so, we inform current debates about new forms of organization and organizing.

KW - Coworking

KW - formality

KW - informality

KW - organizationality

KW - partial organization

KW - Management studies

KW - Business psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85061204358&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/1350508418821008

DO - 10.1177/1350508418821008

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 26

SP - 894

EP - 916

JO - Organization

JF - Organization

SN - 1350-5084

IS - 6

ER -