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

Abstract

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.