A look into Beirut’s coworking scene. Exploring the pre- and post-pandemic conditions

Technological advances, broadband, and an increasing dependency on highspeed internet continue to re-shape the nature of work and workplaces and therefore our societies. With the rise of teleworking, smart-working, and remote working (see Chapter 1), it seems that apart from home ofces, various types of ‘new spaces for work’ (see Akhavan, 2021; Micek et al., 2020) are gaining legitimacy among workers; so-called coworking spaces (CSs) are one of the most popular. In their traditional form, privately owned and managed CSs are simply considered membership-based (monthly/daily rent), shared open-plan ofce environments where unafliated professionals and members of organizations ‘work alone together’ (Spinuzzi, 2012). They use and share physical and cognitive infrastructure and resources based on their needs (Capdevila, 2014). The advantages of CSs go beyond cost savings and simple ofce or infrastructure provision; they ofer values such as (i) collaboration, (ii) community, (iii) sustainability, (iv) openness, and (v) accessibility (Fuzi et al., 2014). The coworking model provides a sort of fexibility, which is very convenient at times when socioeconomic and cultural conditions are constantly changing. Both CSs and coworkers themselves beneft from this degree of fexibility in the way they handle their time, space, money, and work. Diferent types of new space for work such as CSs are freed of the rigid mechanisms of traditional working spaces.