Counterforce or Catalyst? A Review of Coworking Spaces and Gentrification

This paper presents a mixed-methods review on the topic of coworking spaces and gentrification. Based on a sample of 146 articles, a narrative interpretation of “gentrification and coworking” is built around seven “thematic lenses.” We identify a lack of common usage of the gentrification concept and a wide spectrum of relations between coworking and gentrification within the sample articles. This review supports calls to investigate the potential links between coworking spaces and gentrification and confirms that this is an emerging but under-researched topic. The results are relevant to planners, as well as gentrification researchers unfamiliar with coworking.