Coworking and local development outside metropolitan areas in Sweden

Abstract

Through a mixed methods approach, this paper explores how coworking as a phenomenon manifests itself in Sweden, and, using the foundations of agglomeration economy theory as a lens, discusses what impact the occurrence of coworking spaces might have on local and regional development in Sweden's rural regions.Our findings show that the occurrence of coworking providers in Sweden is much more widespread than previously known, as there are far more spaces than popular aggregation sites suggest - our study found that for Sweden they only show 14–18 percent of the actual number of spaces available. In our interviews with members and owners, we used Duranton and Puga's (2004) pillars for agglomeration as a sorting mechanism, which showed that sentiments that fit the themes “matching”, “sharing” and “learning” crop up frequently when respondents explain their experiences. There is reason to go forward from this first, small study to explore how agglomeration economies at the micro level may influence surrounding society and regional economic growth in rural regions.We argue that the emergence of these spaces in rural regions might be a factor in the development of local economies by enabling agglomeration economies at the micro level. We also make the suggestion that gaining accurate information about the number and characteristics of coworking spaces in rural regions will allow for better informed policy decisions and labor market legislation when it comes to regional development.