culturebriefs
9:16in productionCh. 1 · What it is/ 9:16 · ceiling 15 min
Society · Cities

Coworking

Coworking promised community but delivered real estate with Wi-Fi—and that’s still its most honest function.

Coworking is a shared office space arrangement for workers from different companies and the self-employed. It started in San Francisco in 2005 with Brad Neuberg, building on 1990s European hacker spaces. Between 2006 and 2015, the number of spaces and available seats roughly doubled each year. Early adopters included France (2008), the US (2008), Kenya (2010), and Nigeria (2011). It targets freelancers, remote workers, SMEs, and niche groups—and distinguishes itself from incubators and executive suites through its social, collaborative, and cooperative ethos.

SocietyCitiesCommunityCitiesWorkCommunity across the network →
Chapters & takeaways4
  1. 0:52
    What it is

    Coworking is not flexible office leasing—it is a deliberate arrangement for cross-company and self-employed workers to share space.

  2. 2:19
    Where it came from

    It emerged from hacker spaces in 1990s Europe and was formalised by Brad Neuberg in San Francisco in 2005.

  3. 3:52
    How fast it spread

    Between 2006 and 2015, the number of coworking spaces and available seats roughly doubled each year.

  4. 5:31
    Where it landed first

    It took root globally within years: Paris (2008), US green-focused spaces (2008), Lagos (2011), Nairobi (2010).

Worth your time?

Yes. Study the whole thing.

3.5/ 5
What works
  • physical-infrastructure
  • professional-belonging
What does not
  • culture/art
  • culture/arts
  • culture/photography
  • culture/literature
Study it if
  • freelancers
  • remote-workers
  • SMEs
Skip it if
  • corporate-employees-on-assignment
  • students
The written brief1 min read

What the thing is

Coworking is a shared office space arrangement for workers from different companies and the self-employed.

Where it came from

It began in San Francisco in 2005 with Brad Neuberg, building on 1990s European hacker spaces where programmers exchanged skills and best practices.

What it gets right

It delivers infrastructure and community in one package. It gives freelancers, remote workers and SMEs access to professional space without long leases or isolation.

What it gets wrong

It conflates proximity with collaboration. Many spaces prioritise aesthetics and membership fees over actual cooperation or shared purpose.

Why it matters now

Remote work is no longer temporary. Coworking spaces are now infrastructure—testing how physical space can sustain professional belonging beyond corporate control.

Is it worth your time

Yes—if you work outside a traditional office and care about who else is in the room, not just the desk.

Same beat · Society4 of 286
8:48
Image macroImage macros are a digital interface—not an art form. They standardised how millions expressed irony, frustration and affiliation before platforms automated tone and stripped away authorship. Their rigidity enabled scale. Their simplicity enabled theft. Their legacy isn’t humour—it’s the template as infrastructure.
9:10
Self-managed social centerSelf-managed social centers are anti-authoritarian, volunteer-run spaces that operate as infoshops, free schools, bicycle workshops and concert venues. They began in Italy in the 1980s and spread to the US and UK in the 1990s. They oppose gentrification and megaprojects. They create and practice the commons. They are transient, precarious, and politically active—but do not survive long enough to institutionalise what they prefigure.
10:00
Home recordingHome recording is sound captured in private homes—not studios. It began with isolated pioneers in the US, UK, Australia, and Jamaica in the 1950s–1970s. The 1979 Portastudio enabled consumer multitrack recording. Digital recorders and DAWs replaced analog in the 1990s. Lockdowns in 2020 caused a global surge in home-based artists and microgenres. Untreated rooms produce misleading acoustics that compromise mixing. Professional studios have been heavily impacted over the last two decades.
10:02
Burning Man1986Burning Man is a participant-built desert gathering named for the ceremonial burning of a wooden effigy—the Man—on the Saturday before Labor Day. It began on Baker Beach in 1986, moved to the Black Rock Desert in 1990, and operates on radical self-reliance, communal effort, and theme-driven art made solely by attendees. Its ten principles were codified in 2004—not at origin—and its model has since been replicated, commercialised, and contested. It is neither pure counterculture nor corporate spectacle, but a documented instance of how ritual, place, and principle diverge over time.
Up next in Culture

Content creation

· 9:03

Content creation is not democratic—it’s a hierarchy disguised as participation.

Play nextBack to Society
9:03