Abstract
Coworking is a concept with multiple layers. In this article, we argue it as an organizational arrangement constituted communicatively and nurtured by the activity of work. This chapter aims to contribute to the discussion of staff supportiveness in coworking. Our emphasis is its mediation role as a mechanism to promote interactivity among people cohabitating in this kind of flexible workplace. We reach this purpose based on a qualitative approach, sustained on field research, and driven by a multiple case study pursued in Porto Alegre (Brazil) and Strasbourg (France). The materiality of the investigation is interactional practices on work, expressed by discourses. This research promotes a dialogical reflection based on the different locations of study, getting beyond a comparative point of view. Amid the results, it is identified that the activity of the staff is overcharged with structural issues, and the challenge is related to staff’s role in the cultural translation of coworking values in the daily decision-making life.
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Notes
- 1.
From the French desadhérence. According to the ergological approach, there are two inter-related points to understand the activity of work. The adherence (l’adhérence) means experiencing the activity of work now and here, for example, you while reading this text. The desadherence (la desadhérence), then, means looking to the lived situation taking some distance, like you will do when thinking about the ideas that this text brings to you, based on other previous experiences.
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Haubrich, G.F. (2021). Mediation Matters: The Role of Staff in Coworking Constitution. In: Orel, M., Dvouletý, O., Ratten, V. (eds) The Flexible Workplace. Human Resource Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62167-4_9
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