Material Shape: Practices, Spaces and Atmospheres

Abstract

What characterizes coworking in the everyday life of CWS? This question guides the following explanations. First, in Sect. 8.1, two basic practices of maintaining distance and creating proximity are identified, which are of different importance for the settings Concentrated Thinking Work and Interaction and their atmospheres. In Sect. 8.2, typical spatial arrangements and associated atmospheres of work and community are then in the focus of attention (see gray highlighting in Fig. 8.1). For this purpose, the spatial (dis)orders and atmospheres of coworking are examined in their construction for the work settings Concentrated Thinking Work and Interaction. The aim is to work out the material shape of the spaces, i.e. the human and non-human elements of the (dis)orders with their symbolic and material aspects as well as the atmospheric effect (see Löw 2015, p. 222). This brings the spatial structures into view and the associated rules that regulate the spatial action and that are in turn (re-)produced in the spatial action. With regard to the two core functions of CWSs, it is of particular interest how work atmospheres and communal atmospheres are created through the spatial (dis)orders. In relation to the communal atmospheres, the conclusion will address events as rituals for creating communal atmospheres as well as trust-building practices and rituals that contribute to and reinforce communal atmospheres (see Sect. 8.3). The data basis for the following explanations are the observations of the field and self-observations as well as the interviews with the users and the members of the operating teams. 8