IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/cambje/v49y2025i3p581-607..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The contemporary relevance of Marshall to coworking space communities

Author

Listed:
  • Felicia M Fai
  • Philip R Tomlinson
  • Mariachiara Barzotto
  • Sandrine Labory

Abstract

Coworking spaces (CWSs) are a relatively new form of industrial organisation which have grown exponentially in the 21st century. Early authors on CWSs have likened them to micro-clusters. Yet this simple analogy may underplay the intricacies of CWS ‘communities’, which differ by type, goals and location with the burgeoning of this organisational form. We seek to show how Marshall’s work on industrial districts (1890, 1919) and that of his Italianate followers, can inform the communitarian aspects that create distinctions across a range of CWS types that exist today. We apply Marshallian/Italianate perspectives to a qualitative study of CWSs in three English provincial regions and find it offers a useful focussing device through which to explain the subtle differences between CWSs types, giving Marshall renewed importance in the current era.

Suggested Citation

  • Felicia M Fai & Philip R Tomlinson & Mariachiara Barzotto & Sandrine Labory, 2025. "The contemporary relevance of Marshall to coworking space communities," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 49(3), pages 581-607.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:49:y:2025:i:3:p:581-607.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cje/beaf012
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:49:y:2025:i:3:p:581-607.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/cje .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.