http://hdl.handle.net/11089/41059 2026-04-03T23:12:09Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/41159 Collaborative communities as a selling point? From community-driven to service-purposed coworking spaces Orel, Marko; Bennis, Will Coworking spaces emerged in the mid-2000s as collaborative workplaces that actively supported teleworkers and self-employed knowledge workers who shared various (work) environments to interlace themselves in supportive networks, tackle isolation, positively influence well-being, and collaboratively participate in knowledge-sharing activities. However, with the swift popularisation of the coworking model by 2020, newly established flexible office spaces have begun to refer to themselves as community-based workplaces even though they lacked the capacity to support their users’ interactions and collaborative work. Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to explore how coworking spaces have transformed from community-based environments to a flexible place of work where establishing a collaborative community is not an organisational priority. The following exploratory research investigates a sample of 13 coworking spaces in Prague, the Czech Republic, and considers their capacity for supporting interactions and collaborative processes between their users. The results uncovered significant differences between coworking spaces, their spatial designs, the presence of mediation mechanisms, and the frequency of interactions between users, and suggest that the handful of sampled coworking environments misuse the notion of community. In that context, the following study indicates that contemporary coworking spaces can revert to community washing to deliberately pursue economic self-interest rather than support decentralised peer-to-peer exchange that would lead to developing a coworking community. 2021-12-30T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/41160 Book Reviews Egyed, Ildikó; Zsibók, Zsuzsanna; Nagy, Gábor; Groeger, Lidia 2021-12-30T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/41158 Farmers’ markets and community gardens in Slovakia: How do town authorities approach these phenomena? Hencelová, Petra; Križan, František; Bilková, Kristína The aim of the paper is to evaluate alternative food networks (farmers’ markets and community gardens) in Slovak towns in order to determine the views of town self-governing authorities. Data was collected through a questionnaire sent to representatives of towns. The results have shown that only 39% of towns regularly organise farmers’ markets but, overall, 52% of towns support or plan to support their organisation. There are a total of 40 community gardens in 17 towns, mainly in the west of Slovakia. The paper discusses the ways in which Slovak towns support alternative food networks. 2021-12-30T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/41157 People-Powered Planning: Planning from the bottom up in a top-down system Collins, Patrick This paper is concerned with spatial policy in Ireland. It adopts an historical lens to help explain why Ireland currently finds itself at the bottom of the European league table with regard to local governance. After categorising the Irish political and planning system as highly centralised, bureaucratic and linear, the paper uses a case study of the Moycullen village plan to show an alternate path towards place development in Ireland. This case study sets out to contrast the desire of a people to collaborate in the authorship of their place with the top down nature of spatial planning in Ireland. By making clear the methods and results of the project, this paper highlights the latent demand that exists in a community that is subject to national planning system that reduces their ability to affect change. Through the use of some innovative approaches, this project has sought to fire the geographic imaginary of a people with respect to their place. 2021-12-30T00:00:00Z