Unfinished sympathy: on the limitations of sharing as a work practice in community-led coworking

Abstract

AbstractCollaborative workspaces are perceived as places of shared infrastructure where labour is organised in alternative ways. In our article, we juxtapose current and previous work and life arrangements of freelancers who had practised community-led coworking in the medium-sized city of Graz, Austria, asking them to reflect on their professional trajectories. We show that although community-led coworking initially provided an environment of resilience for the freelancers, impediments emerged related to their professional development over time. The latter, we argue, is due to the limitations of sharing as a work practice performed in community-led coworking spaces.

Keywords

• collaborative workspaces
• community-led coworking
• freelance trajectories
• precariousness
• limitations of sharing
• geographies of work