The Social Economy of Coworking Spaces
A focal point model of coordination
Independent knowledge workers often face a coordination problem: they need people, ideas, trust, and complementary resources, but do not know where to find them.
What the paper argues
The paper argues that coworking spaces function as focal points, or Schelling points, for independent workers. They give people a place to coordinate under uncertainty without needing a formal employer, hierarchy, or pre-existing network.
By bringing workers into a shared social economy, coworking spaces can help solve search, matching, learning, and collaboration problems that are otherwise difficult for isolated freelancers and entrepreneurs.
Core mechanism: Coworking spaces act as focal points for coordination under uncertainty
Why it matters
The paper matters because it reframes coworking as more than office real estate. At its best, coworking is social infrastructure for independent work: a way of making people, projects, and opportunities more findable.
From coordination to commons
This paper is the bridge from the early transdisciplinary overview of coworking to the later affective-commons theory.
Read Affective Commons