The Effects of Covid-19 on Coworking Spaces

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s living, working, and travelling behavior. Knowledge workers began working in their homes, and a new demand for flexible working practices has arisen (e.g., remote working, teleworking, diverse flexible and hybrid forms of working). New working spaces have attracted renewed interest among academicians and policymakers in this context because they represent a feasible alternative to working from home.
The chapter explores the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the coworking space, which is the more diffused new working spaces’ category worldwide. It is composed of five sections. The introduction is followed by a literature review on CS’s definition, typologies, location, and effects on the users and local context (Section two). Section three presents and discusses the results of two worldwide surveys addressed to CSs’ managers (Coworker.com and Deskmag surveys), and a specific focus is devoted to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on coworking spaces. The country-specific case studies of France, Italy, Norway, and Spain are presented, compared, and discussed in Section four. Section five summarises the main results, discusses the conclusions and future research paths to explore after the pandemic.