The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Future of Working Spaces

This edited volume presents a compendium of emerging and innovative studies on the proliferation of new working spaces (NeWSps), both formal and informal (such as coworking spaces, maker spaces, fab labs, public libraries, and coffee shops), and their role during and following the COVID-19 pandemic in urban and regional development and planning. This book presents an original, interdisciplinary approach to NeWSps through three features: (i) situating the debate in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has transformed NeWSp business models and the everyday work life of their owners and users; (ii) repositioning and rethinking the debate on NeWSps in the context of socioeconomics and planning and comparing conditions between before and during the COVID-19 pandemic; and (iii) providing new directions for urban and regional development and resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic, considering new ways of working and living. The 17 chapters are co-authored by both leading international scholars who have studied the proliferation of NeWSps in the last decade and young, talented researchers, resulting in a total of 55 co-authors from different disciplines (48 of whom are currently involved in the COST Action CA18214 'The Geography of New Working Spaces and Impact on the Periphery' 2019-2023: www.new-working-spaces.eu). Selected comparative studies among several European countries (Western and Eastern Europe) and from the US and Lebanon are presented. The book contributes to the understanding of multi-disciplinary theoretical and practical implications of NeWSps for our society, economy, and urban/regional planning in conditions following the COVID-19 pandemic. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Ilaria Mariotti is an associate professor of urban and regional economics in the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Mina Di Marino is an associate professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway. Pavel Bednár is an assistant professor and head of the Department of Regional Development, Public Sector Administration and Law, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Czech Republic.

Introduction The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Future of Working Spaces PART 1 Socioeconomic Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on New Working Spaces and New Development Scenarios 1. Coworking spaces and COVID-19: Analysing the debate through Twitter 2. Changes in knowledge strategies under the COVID-19 pandemic: A tale of European coworking spaces 3. Independently operated coworking spaces and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic 4. A Look into Beirut's Coworking Scene: Exploring the Pre- and Post-pandemic Conditions 5. Community bonds in new working spaces of a small town PART 2 The Role of New Working Spaces in Urban and Regional Development and the Policy and Planning Debate During the COVID-19 Pandemic 6. New working spaces: policy perspectives before and after the COVID-19 pandemic 7. New working spaces in rural areas: designing a research agenda for regional sovereignty in post- pandemic times 8. Digital nomads and coworking spaces: reshaped perspectives? The Paris mega city-region after COVID-19 9. Rural coworking spaces in the COVID-19 era: a window of opportunity? 10. Presenting coworking spaces and chrono-urbanism as a policy package for sustainable mobility in post-pandemic Malta PART 3 New Working Spaces and the Work Lives of Coworkers and Remote Workers Under the COVID-19 Pandemic 11. Virtual coworking and remote working: lessons and perspectives on the COVID-19 impacts from Estonia and Norway 12. Coworkers in the Netherlands in the post-pandemic 13. Coworking spaces and COVID-19: A South-Korean perspective 14. Perspectives on the Dynamics of Third Spaces 15. Home, university, and other spaces: Where Finnish and Italian academics did research prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic 16. Women Empowering Women? Challenges and opportunities of new female-oriented 17. Work-life balance services in coworking spaces and the impact of COVID-19 Concluding Remarks, Trends and Future Research on New Work Spaces