With an increase in alternative forms of work, people are no longer limited to traditional office spaces. The aim for a healthier integration of private and work comes with the advantages of experimenting with new technologies. As a result, coworking spaces are spreading through the urban centers. But our way of dealing with work is still marked by our corporate-focused past. This project aims to explore how can co-working spaces occupy a more meaningful role by connecting people with their interests. My interest is to unveil the social rules of the space and turn interactions between coworkers more pleasant and easy. The result is a reflection about the future of collaborative workplaces. The success of the experiments reflect the openness of most co-workers and hosts. On a higher level the project gave me a better understanding of how AI could help to improve the social aspect of our workplaces.

Background: Coworking is an office-environment where you share a common space with other companies and entrepreneurs, it encourage to cooperation and social interaction. The concept has grown the past few years and this way of working is mainly appreciated among small businesses and entrepreneurs. Coworking as a workspace concept is a new phenomenon which makes existing research limited. Therefore this study hopes to fill some existing information gaps concerning Coworking. Purpose: The purpose with this report is to contribute with more knowledge to the subject and identify the most common target groups using Coworking in the area of Stockholm. The research also seeks to compare thoughts with Coworking-operators and their members, to find out if this new concept is a trend or something that will prevail. Method: Both a qualitative and a quantitative research approach has been used to obtain the results. The methods used are semi-structured interviews with five Coworking-operators and a survey with closed questions addressed to members of the workspaces. By using both qualitative and quantitative methods, called triangulation, it enhances the reliability and validity of the study. Delimitation: The study is limited geographical to Stockholm city. Results and conclusion: Both members and operators within Coworking have a positive attitude towards these types of offices. They feel that the environment increases their productivity and their social contact. It is widely spoken about the network and its importance for Coworking, but from the results members value location and interior standard higher. Future studies: It would be interesting to make a similar study in a few years when the market is more established and see if the operators think different about Coworking. Studies that compare Coworking members with workers who use more traditional office spaces are also of interest in order to see how they look at productivity and office space, and the connection between them. / Bakgrund: Coworking är en typ av kontorsmiljö där man delar samma utrymme med andra företag och entreprenörer, vilket uppmuntrar till samarbete och social interaktion. Det har på den senaste tiden vuxit fram som ett alternativ till de traditionella kontorslösningarna och har framförallt uppskattats av entreprenörer och små företag. Coworking är som kontorslösning ett nytt fenomen vilket betyder att det finns begränsat med forskning. Denna studie hoppas att fylla igen några existerande informationsluckor gällande Coworking. Syfte: Syftet med rapporten har varit att inbringa större kunskap om ämnet och identifiera den huvudsakliga målgruppen som utnyttjar detta sätt att arbete i Stockholm. Undersökningen vill även jämföra tankarna angående Coworking mellan Coworking-operatörerna och deras medlemmar för att finna ifall Coworking är en trend eller ej. Metod: Både ett kvalitativt och ett kvantitativt tillvägagångssätt har använts för att erhålla rapportens resultat. De använda metoderna är semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem Coworking-operatörer och en enkätstudie med stängda frågor riktad till Coworking-medlemmar. Genom att använda både kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder, en så kallad triangulering, förstärks studiens tillförlitlighet och validitet. Avgränsning: Studien är avgränsad geografiskt till Stockholms stad. Resultat och slutsats: Både medlemmar och coworkingoperatörer har en positiv inställning till denna typ av kontorslösning. De känner att denna arbetsmiljö bidrar till en ökad produktivitet och även ökad social kontakt. De pratas mycket om nätverket och dess betydelse för Coworking, men av resultaten att döma så är medlemmarnas värderingar generellt mer fokuserade på traditionellt viktiga attribut som läge och standard. Framtida forskning: Att genomföra en liknande studie om några år då marknaden har hunnit etablera sig och fått mer uppmärksamhet av allmänheten vore intressant för att se om företag har ändrat sitt tänk gällande Coworking. Även undersökningar som jämför företag som arbetar i Coworking-miljöer med de som inte gör det i fråga om produktivitet och utveckling vore värt att undersöka vidare.

Coworking spaces, an example of the sharing economy concept, refers to shared workplaces that mostly freelancers, entrepreneurs and other actors of the knowledge industry utilize for the purpose of flexible sharing of space, ideas and knowledge. Previous research reveals that the proximity of occupants sitting together in a shared office space does not necessarily lead to inter-organizational collaboration. Knowledge sharing and inter-organizational collaboration tend to be perceived by occupants and managers of coworking spaces as incidental or a secondary aim. In the same view, coworking spaces tend to be perceived as service providers rather than a community where collaboration can be fostered. A potential solution, in this case is, the initial understanding and categorization of occupant types and their evident collaboration approaches which may result in the managers and policy makers of coworking spaces knowing what conditions to put in place in order to foster collaboration.The novelty of this research and contribution to theoretical knowledge lies in the development of insect metaphors to simplify the understanding of coworking space occupant types and their corresponding inter-organizational collaboration approaches as it affects their willingness or lack thereof to engage in collaboration.The research data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with a selection of occupants across three selective coworking spaces in Malmö. The findings of this research indicate that there are correlations between occupant types, their collaboration approach and their willingness to collaborate. Therefore, the effort to promote collaboration at coworking spaces needs to be a responsibility shared between the occupants and the community managers.

This master’s thesis investigates how freelancers experience job precarity and asymmetrical power relations which have been established within the media production industry as well as the relevance and value of coworking spaces providing a workspace with the possibilities of knowledge sharing, networking and community building, as a framework in order to challenge their precarious working conditions. Furthermore, the research aims at examining the participants’ experiences in a qualitative manner to explore those rather new concepts of freelancing and coworking spaces as previous research has failed to address the individual experiences of how freelancers deal with the nature of work in the media production industry.Situated in the context of the structural changes within media production towards a project-based nature of work and the decrease of permanent employment, freelancers are increasingly facing precarious working conditions such as uncertainty and instability.Applying the theory of structure and agency as theoretical framework, it is discussed to what extent freelancers are influenced by the established structures, rules and norms within the media production industry and how their agency is enabled within these structures.Using a qualitative research approach, this study is based on an investigation of the experiences and knowledge of eleven freelancers working in the media production industry and who are users of coworking spaces by the means of semi-structured interviews. In summary, this thesis reveals that the majority of the participants experience asymmetrical power relations and precarity to a high degree. Furthermore, freelancers who seek for communities in order to challenge their precarious working conditions, experience coworking spaces as highly valuable concept in order to increase the possibilities for their individual agency. Having investigated those rather novel concepts, this thesis serves as a starting point for examining further research on freelancers’ individual experiences of their working conditions.

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Cette dissertation a pour but de comprendre l’appropriation par les consommateurs d’objets ou lieux qu’ils partagent. En nous basant sur les théories de l’appropriation, de la consommation par l’accès et du design, nous questionnons la définition, l’émergence et la valeur perçue de l’appropriation en accès. Nous explorons les contextes de l’autopartage et du coworking au travers de quatre articles. Nos résultats mettent l’emphase sur le rôle des objets matériels dans la mise en pratique de l’appropriation par les consommateurs. Nous définissons l’appropriation du consommateur dans le cadre de l’accès comme la création de significations (valeur de signe, valeur de lien, bien-être dans l’usage) grâce à un ensemble routiniers de pratiques entre les consommateurs et les éléments matériels de l’activité de consommation par l’accès. / This dissertation aims to understand consumer appropriation of objects and places shared with others. We draw from theories of appropriation, access-based consumption and design to question the definition, the value and the emergence of consumer appropriation in access. We explore the contexts of car sharing and coworking spaces through four research articles. Our findings highlight the role of material objects in the enactment of consumer appropriation practices. We define consumer appropriation as the creation of meanings (sign value, linking value, wellbeing in use) enacted through a routinized set of practices between the consumer and the material elements of the access-based activity.

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This is the story of how four people invented a whole new world and way of life - and how they attempted to establish it across the globe. Copass, a Parisian startup consisting of four cofounders, aimed to connect hundreds of the world's shared workspaces under their new global federation. But the main objective of this startup, in contrast to most, was not to build capital. It was to build a universe: a future where white-collar workers would be liberated from the shackles of office life to work anywhere in the world, to meet exciting people and to have amazing experiences. Here, workdays were permanently mixed with holidays. Work was fun, workplaces were play-places and workers were adventurers. The ambition of these four cofounders was to turn the way they wanted things to be for them into the way things ought to be for everyone else. To turn their desired lifestyle into a global social movement that enrolled, as they saw it, hundreds of cities and thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of people. In short, they created a company to fulfil a dream. This is an ethnography of that one startup's dream, analysed at length to demonstrate innovative ways of worldmaking employed by an ambitious tech company seeking success. A company dissatisfied with the world that, instead of changing it, decided to create a new one.

Depuis une vingtaine d’années, les activités culturelles et créatives (art, architecture, etc.) sont plébiscitées par les pouvoirs publics et les scientifiques pour leur rôle culturel mais aussi économique, social et urbain. Leur agglomération spatiale dans d’anciens quartiers industriels et ouvriers fait peser de multiples enjeux sur ces territoires. Planifiée par les décideurs politiques ou construite par des dynamiques spontanées, cette agglomération transforme des espaces en friche en quartiers créatifs. Ces quartiers sont le lieu d’ancrage de clusters qui lient les travailleurs créatifs dans un réseau social d’échange et de coopération marqué par l’entre-soi. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’interroger le fonctionnement et les enjeux des quartiers créatifs en vérifiant l’hypothèse de la mise en place d’un club de travailleurs créatifs au sein de ces territoires. Défini comme un regroupement volontaire d’individus autour de la jouissance exclusive de biens et de services, le club est porteur à la fois de dynamiques collectives de partage et de logiques d’entre-soi et de ségrégation. Questionner son existence dans les quartiers créatifs introduit une réflexion autour de la cohésion et de la fragmentation sociales d’une part, et de la créativité et de l’innovation d’autre part.Fondée sur une analyse qualitative croisée de trois quartiers créatifs des villes de Nantes, Marseille et Grenoble, cette thèse montre comment des clubs de travailleurs créatifs se forment dans ces territoires, quel est leur fonctionnement et quels sont leurs impacts sociaux et économiques. / For twenty years, cultural and creative activities (art,architecture, etc.) have been promoted by public authorities and scientists for their cultural, economic,social and urban roles. Their spatial agglomeration informer industrial districts implies multiple issues on these territories. Planned by political decision-makers or resulting from spontaneous dynamics, this agglomeration transforms industrial wasteland into creative quarters.Clusters that link creative workers in collaborative social networks are embedded in these quarters. These social networks are characterized by cooperation and a senseof togetherness.This thesis aims to question the functioning and the stakes of creative quarters by confirming the hypothesis of the establishment of a creative workers’ club within these territories. The club is defined as a voluntary grouping of individuals around the exclusive enjoymen tof goods and services. It carries both collective dynamics of sharing and logics of exclusion and segregation.Questioning its existence in creative quarters induces a reflection on social cohesion and fragmentation on the one hand, and creativity and innovation on the other one. Based on a qualitative analysis of three creative quarters in the cities of Nantes, Marseille and Grenoble, this thesis illustrates how clubs of creative workers are formed in these territories, how they work and what their social and economic impacts are.