ELLISON, Ian (2021). Contemporary knowledge workspaces: a Lefebvrian case study exploring provider and user perspectives. Masters, Sheffield Hallam University. [Thesis]
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Ellison_2021_MProf_ContemporaryKnowledgeWorkspaces.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.
Ellison_2021_MProf_ContemporaryKnowledgeWorkspaces.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.
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Abstract
In this study, participant-led photography was utilised to explore socially constructed
notions of ‘what mattered about workspace’ with providers and users of two very
different workspace case studies in London: a new contemporary office space of an
established professional services organisation, and a coworking space for ethical
business start-ups. The inductive findings were then considered using Lefebvre’s
spatial triad as an analytic framework.
The study sought to set aside conventional perspectives from the workspace design
and management body of knowledge, to explore whether the qualitative visual research
technique called participant-led photography, combined with a Lefebvrian reading of
the findings, offered insights into how ‘knowledge workers’ understand, feel about and
use their organisational workspaces.
A further aim was to explore ways to practically engage with Lefebvrian thinking. If this
were possible, Lefebvre’s significant yet esoteric contributions to spatial theory might
be better understood and valued more widely in the field of workspace design and
management, conceivably benefitting the working lives of many people.
The evidence suggests that this visual research method yields diverse topics and issues
not typically surfaced through more traditional workspace design and management
research approaches. It shows how intrinsic workspace is to our working lives, and so
advocates a stronger link between workspace and organisation theory and practice. It
also encourages further application of novel research approaches in the discipline.
By embracing Lefebvre’s notion of space as socially produced, the case study evidence
also suggests that ‘space-making’ (foregrounding the management of built facilities)
and ‘place-making’ (enabling communities of people; akin to urban design’s
‘placemaking’) can be regarded as contrasting approaches to the production of
knowledge workspace, which can afford qualitatively different experiential outcomes.
Engaging with Lefebvre in this way is less about workspace judgements, and more
about opening up possibilities to holistically critique organisational context and
appropriateness. Theoretically, by openly inviting engagement with Lefebvre’s ideas, it
extends workspace theory beyond Cartesian understandings of physical objects in
geometric space, toward Kantian notions of workspace as lived experience,
acknowledging that the spatial and the social are irrevocably and politically intertwined.
The study demonstrates an opportunity to positively reframe the often-polarised debate
surrounding workplace provision. It is exploratory in nature and makes no claims to any
universally valid findings. Instead, its contribution is in showing new possibilities through
alternative workspace analyses and research approaches.
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