A coworking culture of lifelong learning

Abstract

Work is the main activity of most adults, a source of socio-cultural relations and opportunities for informal learning. One of the increasingly popular forms of work is coworking. It is predominantly used by IT specialists, and its growth in popularity is related to the possibility of remote work, the application of modern information and communication technologies, and digital tools.
The annual rate of development of coworking exceeds 30%. It is estimated that one in four young people from “Generation Z” starts working as a coworker. Coworking is becoming the subject of research in many scientific disciplines, as evidenced by the scientific works that are currently being published, but in pedagogy, coworking has not yet appeared. However, it is already so well-developed and so deeply embedded in the consciousness of the young generation in particular that it deserves to be noticed in pedagogy as well. In this article, based on my own research conducted in three coworking spaces located in three Polish cities, I identify and discuss the coworking culture of lifelong learning, which consists of architecture, equipment, relationships, values, artificial intelligence-based tools, meet-ups and regulations. The inclusion of coworking in the pedagogical research may shed new light on research problems that have long been undertaken in work pedagogy, such as informal learning, lifelong
learning, humanization of work or self-education.