Abstract
This paper analyzes the self-organizing network Hoffice – a merger between the words home and office – that brings together people who wish to co-create temporary workplaces. The Hoffice concept entails a co-working methodology, and a set of practices inherent in opening up one’s home as a temporary, shared workplace, with the help of existing social media platforms, particularly Facebook. We discuss both the practices of co-creating temporary workplaces, particularly for workers who lack a stable office and orchestrate flexible work arrangements, and the values and rhetoric enshrined in Hoffice. We collected our research materials through interviews, participant observation, and workshops. Our findings draw attention to i) the practical arrangement of Hoffice events, ii) the participatory efforts to get individual work done, and 3) the co-creation of an alternative social model that encourages trust, self-actualization, and openness. To conclude, we discuss how Hoffice is already making change for its members, and how this is indicative of a politics of care. We contribute to research on computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) by highlighting grassroots efforts to create alternative ways of organizing nomadic work and navigating non-traditional employment arrangements.
Highlights
Once an event is created on Facebook by a member of the network who is willing to serve as a host – that is, to share one’s home as a temporary workplace – other members are welcome to show their interest and sign up to attend it
The concept relates to a co-working methodology and to the set of practices inherent in opening up one’s home as a temporary, shared workplace, with the help of existing social media platforms, Facebook
We have discussed both practices of cocreating temporary workplaces, for workers who lack a stable office and orchestrate flexible work arrangements, and the values and rhetoric enshrined in Hoffice
Summary
These studies (Rossitto et al 2017) emphasized the practical achievements involved in making it possible to work at several places by drawing attention to issues such as: i) place-making (Brown and O'Hara 2003; Perry et al 2001; Rossitto and Severinson Eklundh 2007; Rossitto et al 2014), that is the range of practices enacted to create the conditions to work, including micro-mobility and the mobility of artefacts (Luff and Heath 1998); ii) planful opportunism (Perry et al 2001), that is the planning undertaken to make sure that working resources are available while on the move; iii) technological discontinuities (Bogdan et al 2006), that is the changes occurring in the technologies used as collaborative practices are moved across locations; iv) the negotiation of the constellations of technologies to be used (Rossitto et al 2014) as an essential aspect of nomadic practices in collaborative work; and v) the infrastructure of nomadic work (Su and Mark 2008), that is, the range of situated practices to recreate the mobile office This included, for instance, efforts to assemble human and non-human actants, to seek resources, and to remain connected to the main office
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