Building communities in rural coworking spaces

In the last decade, the coworking movement, that was initiated in urban environments, has been expanding to rural areas. In both cases, the concept of community appears as one of the most crucial aspects. However, in urban spaces, community dynamics tend to be circumscribed to the space, whereas in rural areas, their territorial embeddedness appear also as very relevant. Based on the case of Cowocat Rural, the network of rural coworking spaces in Catalonia, this chapter analyses the community dynamics at the different spatial levels (from the internal to the regional level), and the managerial challenges encountered. The results suggest that in rural areas, the capacity of developing local communities in the municipality and beyond is important for the sustainability of the project, and to contribute to the goal of developing the local socio-economic context.