Last week Lizzie was invited to speak to media and communication study students at the University of Lund in Sweden by Professor Annette Hill.

Initial findings from the three year study were presented to a packed of Masters and doctoral level scholars. The presentation topic of the organisational culture of high technology clusters generated excellent debate and good questions for the speaker.

Two second year Masters students had spent time at a popular co-working space in Lund. They felt the findings from the study that were specifically on the culture of co-working spaces in North America and Europe were in exact accord with their own experiences. Professor Jackson thanked them for their comments noting that this indicated the findings were valid.

Professor Jackson had outlined the importance of community and trust amongst SMEs working in close collaboration. This is assisted by the provision of cafes, networking events, and training provided as accelerator initiatives.

Three types of co-working spaces have been identified:

- Commercial-Independent
- Commercial-Franchised
- Grassroots-Non-commercial

The commodification of community in the commercial co-working spaces was noted. This is often measured in terms of 'density'.

Grassroots co-working spaces  better enabled a range of different kinds of creative communities whereas commercial-independent spaces sought a specific unique selling point to attract SMEs such as roof top bars or chill-rooms. Commercial-Franchises, such as We Work, Google Campus and Techstars were brand-based, global, and uniform.