Rural coworking: “It’s becoming contagious”

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked many questions about the future of work and employment with increasing rates of remote working expected to persist. The possibility that commuters will spend less time in city centres, has led many industry experts to predict new growth in rural coworking. In this article, we draw on interviews with 15 coworking operators to examine the new

Remote and connected

“…The COVID-19 crisis has been an accelerator of the knowledge workers' increasing lure for more remote destinations. For example, the share of teleworkers outside metropolitan areas has massively increased in Italy (Mariotti et al 2021) but also in remote parts of the UK like South West England and Wales (Bosworth et al 2021). Different factors could foster the implementation of coworking spaces in rural areas: (i) the willingness of companies to downsize their offices by relocating employees in other locations and promoting remote working; (ii) the tendency by freelancers and digital nomads to move to rural areas to experience a higher quality of life (Manzini Ceinar, Mariotti 2021b).…”

“…Different factors could foster the implementation of coworking spaces in rural areas: (i) the willingness of companies to downsize their offices by relocating employees in other locations and promoting remote working; (ii) the tendency by freelancers and digital nomads to move to rural areas to experience a higher quality of life (Manzini Ceinar, Mariotti 2021b). CSs in rural areas could thus provide new opportunities for new network connections and relationships to emerge within rural spaces, by connecting rural people into wider knowledge networks (Thomas 2019) but also by creating new interdependencies between urban and rural areas (Bosworth et al 2021, Bürgin et al 2021. In that case, attracting CSs located in urban poles that have been greatly affected by the COVID-19 might be a good strategy for local authorities located in rural areas.…”

Kleinstadtforschung

“…Geht es um Digitalisierung in ländlich geprägten Räumen oder Klein-und Mittelstädten, ist ortsunabhängiges Arbeiten neben bedarfsorientierter Mobilität und Daseinsvorsorgeausstattung eines der großen Themen (Bosworth et al 2021;Merrell et al 2022). Mit der vermehrten Nutzung des Homeoffice und der Entstehung von Co-Working-Spaces geht in schrumpfenden ländlichen Kleinstädten nicht nur die Hoffnung einher, Pendelwege zu reduzieren und damit physische Mobilität teilweise durch virtuelle Mobilität zu ersetzen (BBSR 2017: 118), sondern auch, neue Nutzungen für leer stehende Gebäude zu finden und damit die Ortskerne vor allem tagsüber zu beleben und so schließlich auch für neue Einwohner_innen attraktiv werden zu lassen (Porsche 2021: 168).…”