A year ago, exactly at the time when the first European coworking conference was taking place in Brussels, the betahaus crew and I were sitting together in Berlin collaboratively trying to write a book on the issue of coworking in general and the betahaus experience in particular. Adam Hyde of Floss Manuals had suggested we use his method of the booksprint which seemed to make a lot of sense in the context of a coworking publication.
So we missed the first cowo conference. Except for Christoph Fahle who went and sort of brought back the second edition to Berlin. Hence, last weekend Tonia Welter from Betahaus and I were standing in front of a crowd of roughly 200 people launching “The Beta-Principle. Coworking and the Future of Work” at the 2nd Coworking Conference that took place at betahaus and Cluboffice.
Quite a bit can happen in a year and with respect to cowoking it actually did. It seems fair to say that 2011 really was the year coworking took off as a global phenomenon. Coworking spaces are now mushrooming all over the world, not just in the big metropoles but also in the second, third and fourth cities. In Berlin, they must have multiplied by something like factor 10 over the course of one year. We also saw the emergence of xxxl versions of shared workspaces of 500+ people in the US or giant coworking communities of over 6000 that are reported from China.
So where does the coworking movement stand really? After the second day of the conference, Christoph came up with the analogy that gave this post its title. He said: “You know, I get the feeling from this conference that coworking has become something like the spaceship in ‘A hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’, you know, the one you can only see if you are not looking at it.” To be honest, I can’t remember the space ship but his remark was spot on. Coworking as a phenomenon is somewhat out of focus and this should be seen as a good thing. Define coworking! Well, according to the conference’s participants it is something in between anti-corporate activism and Goldman Sachs investment banking. So do not try look too closely because then, you will not see it. Coworking has entered a state of Heisenberg uncertainty or, indeed, quantum ambivalence. There is no way of predicting whether we end up with a particle or a wave but it is highly probable that it will remain fluctuating.
In fact, coworking today resembles a very talented undergraduate who is heavily courted by all sorts of professional, institutional, governmental interests, likes it, but at the same time does not want to give up its ideals. So this is full blown adolescence with all its ambivalences.
Coworking & Politics
On the idealistic side, Mutinerie, a coworking space from Paris started off things nicely, presenting their vision of coworking by way of a helpful reiteration of the arguments that have been driven the movement from its very beginnings. What it boils down to is a rejection of the corporate, hierarchy-driven employee-model with its corresponding culture that might pretend to engage employees as partners but never really does. So if you do not want the kind of corporate shenanigans Mike Judge portrays so beautifully in his film Office Space you need to engage in mutiny (the meaning of the French mutinerie) and set up your own real deal: a community driven workspace that supports your attempt at entrepreneurial sovereignty. Rafa de Ramón from Utopic_US in Madrid pushed things even further the revolutionary road by linking his coworking space (or many of its members) to the political movement that has emerged out of Spain as a reaction to the economic crisis.
So coworking and revolution? Or even: coworking as revolution? Although those of you more critically inclined might dismiss the notion of a “coworking revolution” as rhetorical hyperbole, the second day of the conference put this theme in all seriousness on the barcamp table. In a radical corner of the betahaus, a smart young man from deskmag pushed the idea of coworking as carrying the seeds for a new form of anarcho-syndicalism. Which might sound crazy at first. However, if one thinks about it is not even that farfetched an idea. It simply means the reinvention of democracy – political as well as economic – as distributed network of small sovereign units. A sort COMMONIST Utopia for the digital age. Anni Roolf from Coworking Wuppertal then tried to put this into historical perspective by arguing that coworking might actually bring together the positive aspects of modern structure and postmodern flexibility.
Coworking & Value
On a similarly political dimension register the more practical projects that were presented in Berlin such as the German coworking school or co-housing projects such as k-house in Philadelphia. One of the most intense moments was probably a session on the question of new value systems. Are coworking spaces able to provide the infrastructure for alternatives to money as medium of exchange. What sort of currency-systems could be used to formalise existing informal practices of barter? And is such a formalisation at all desirable? Or would it damage the informal culture of sharing in a coworking space? Obviously, one does not find definite answers to these complicated political questions within the space of one workshop hour. But it is great that these questions came up and were subject to heated debates.
Now the question is of course: do revolutionaries write business plans? Not really. Which is why coworking has probably more to do with social innovation than social revolution. However, the great thing about the movement at this point is that it provides space for radical ideas, experiments and practices out of which real social innovations rather revolutionary pipedreams then emerge. And they do emerge also because coworking spaces are places where people who “just fucking do it” – to quote a random right arm tattoo that was present at the conference – are drawn to. The fact that coworking spaces need business models in order to operate does not mean that everything there happens within the confines of such business models. Is not this discrepancy exactly the reason why coworking spaces provide for a much more positive work experience than the corporate office? This is at least what the surveys presented at the first day of the conference seemed to suggest. In coworking spaces people feel that they regain sovereignty over their own lives. Which does not, of course, mean that once you have joined a coworking space, life is going to be a walk in the park. Coworkers are by no means “independent workers.” Instead of hierarchies and bosses they depend on networks and clients. This kind of dependency is one where one has to deal with looser power structures on the one hand and increased precarity on the other. This situation can indeed be turned into a path to more sovereignty but only if one is able to develop the appropriate tools to manage the insecurity that comes with such an increase in individual autonomy. And for this purpose coworking spaces have proven to be the right places.
to be continued…
Great article.
It gives a deep view of what’s happening in the coworking galaxy.
Thanks