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This study aims to explore the manifold implications – health, environmental and economic – of integrating coworking spaces (CSs) into residential settings. The research emphasizes the health-related potential and connected benefits of situating these contemporary spaces of work in retrofitted buildings.

The research highlights the potential of retrofitted buildings – owing to their urban locations, existing infrastructure, and available space – to accommodate CSs. Employing the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) methodology, the paper systematically reviews literature from 2010 to 2021. It investigates the influence of residential CSs on health, community cohesion and environmental sustainability.

The results indicate that integrating CSs within residential areas can significantly enhance user wellbeing, create a healthier residential environment and positively impact the broader community. Retrofitted buildings emerge as optimal venues for CSs due to their urban positioning and potential to contribute to users' physical, mental and social health. However, the strategic (re)use of retrofitted buildings is crucial, alongside planning to address potential downsides like gentrification.

The study is based on a literature review and may not fully capture the specificities of certain regional or local conditions that could affect the health benefits associated with CSs. In addition to that, the study primarily references European-centric research between 2010 and 2021, indicating a need for more diverse geographic and cultural studies. Further empirical studies are needed to validate the findings behind the following study.

The findings of this study can guide urban planners, policymakers and architects in assessing the feasibility of converting residential buildings into CSs and planning relevant activities. They can leverage the potential health benefits to promote CSs and encourage healthier lifestyle practices in residential communities.

Introducing CSs in residential areas can lead to reduced commuting stress, opportunities for physical activities and social interactions, and healthier lifestyle practices. These benefits can enhance the overall well-being of individuals and communities, fostering a stronger social fabric in urban settings.

This research is novel in examining the health benefits associated with CSs in residential areas and the role of retrofitted buildings in promoting such advantages.

This study aims to enrich our understanding of the characteristics of non-urban coworking spaces (CSs) that focus on corporate users, as well as the benefits that companies expect to gain from incorporating those CSs into their corporate real estate (CRE) portfolios.

This study leverages a series of in-depth interviews with owners and managers of CSs in non-urban locales that focus on serving corporate clients.

The research reveals various CS characteristics and forms within non-urban areas, focusing on corporate clients. It suggests that implementing a CS in corporate premises is perceived to enhance CRE use-value strategies with a focus on the employee's well-being, innovation and the attraction of talents. Moreover, exchange-value strategies with a focus on portfolio flexibility may benefit from the implementation of a CS. However, strategies related to life-cycle cost optimization or gains are not perceived to be supported. Social events for the surrounding neighborhood and the choice of location emerge as critical success factors for non-urban CSs. Besides infrastructure and connectivity, non-urban corporate-centric CSs built their location decisions rather on a personal connection to the location and place of residence of potential users than on lower rental prices.

This research pioneers in providing a comprehensive understanding of non-urban CSs, particularly in the context of their perceived implications for corporate real estate management. The nuanced perspectives it offers are invaluable for stakeholders looking to leverage CSs as part of their corporate strategies.

The literature on coworking spaces (CSs) is growing fast; notably, this topic has attracted a wide range of contributions from various disciplines during the past years. Although CSs first appeared in major cities, small towns and rural areas are also becoming attractive. To date, no literature review has systematically studied the effects of such collaborative-flexible new working spaces proliferating in non-urban areas. Therefore, this paper aims to present a systematic literature review about the effects of coworking spaces located in peripheral and rural areas.

The methodological approach is based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, also known as PRISMA. Following the PRISMA checklist items, this study provides different aspects and identifies indicators from various cross-studies published in 10 years (2011–2021).

Results show that, in the past decade, Europe has recorded the highest number of publications on the topic of coworking spaces (CSs); the main research focus was on spatial planning. CSs foster communities of specialized and high-skilled workers, attract businesses and venture capitalists and may accelerate urban revitalisation processes. The regeneration of spaces can positively affect the value of commercial properties in the vicinity and attract developers. Moreover, by establishing communities and networks beyond the working life, coworking was found to reduce depopulation and even foster the influx of non-urban areas.

The findings of this study can be transferred to policymakers to be considered in designing tailored policies in non-urban areas and also places-that-don't matter.

By date, this study is the first attempt to conduct a systematic review of the literature on the effects of coworking spaces in peripheral and rural areas. This is important since this typology of flexible-collaborative working space is gaining public attention, especially during the pandemic and the development of such spaces in non-urban areas.

The study was designed to investigate the bidirectional causation between the real estate market characteristics (residential property prices/rents (including PTR), office rents) and the rise of coworking spaces (CSs) in the peripheral areas of Germany.

Based on the desk research, the authors constructed their own database of 1,201 CSs. The authors gathered data on the residential and office prices and rents on a district level. To identify real market differences between districts with and without CSs, the authors applied the t-test for independent samples.

The second-highest number of CSs were found to operate in the office market peripheries. This phenomenon should be explained by a search for lower office rents, which CSs seek. Most CSs in the peripheral areas of Germany were only recently established in tourist-oriented regions in the south and north of Germany. In this paper, the authors confirmed that the strength of peripheral CSs lies in the hybridity of their operations: for the majority of CSs, running a CS is a non-core business. The authors argue that the role of CSs is rather limited in attracting real estate investors and boosting the real estate market in the peripheral areas of Germany.

The research shows that peripheral locations are attracting CSs to significant extent. The study shows that CSs can be part of corporate real estate or workplace strategies. As the majority of peripheral CSs are located in tourism areas, the subletting of vacant spaces could be a lucrative business model for hotels, particularly in the times of pandemics. Therefore, further research should focus on the role of tourist areas in the implementation of CSs model.

The focus of this study (CSs in peripheral areas) is original. Additionally, applying the real estate perspective to study the location of CSs is novel as well.

Building upon the results of a critical review of previous studies, the purpose of this paper is to present a framework to enhance the reliability of the theoretical model for international benchmarking of labour productivity (TMIBLP) method for construction project activities. The next part of the paper presents the results of implementing the proposed framework for construction activities in the Iranian construction industry.

This paper draws upon a critical review of the literature to highlight the drawbacks of the previous studies concerning implementing TMIBLP within the construction industry. Identifying these shortcomings, the authors propose a framework for construction projects, which presents the procedure for deploying TMIBLP for construction activities in a reliable manner. The final section of the paper demonstrates the empirical implementation of the proposed framework within the Iranian construction industry.

The primary contributions of the paper include: identifying the drawbacks of previous studies within the construction context, the framework that would lead construction managers towards more reliable implementation of benchmarking for construction projects, and determining the baseline of erecting steel structures in a developing country.

A practical implementation of the TMIBLP method was presented to address the lack of research in Iran and to show the feasibility of using the framework developed. The authors investigated the daily labour productivity for the activity of structural steel erection for six projects in Tehran in order to determine the values of the baseline productivity for each project. Accordingly, the disruption index, performance ratio and project management index as the project benchmarks were calculated for all six projects.

Underlining the necessity of implementing methods such as TMIBLP, this study outlines the outcomes of the first study on the benchmarking of construction activities deploying the proposed framework and using the data on erecting steel structures from six construction projects in Iran. The discussions provide guidelines for construction project managers regarding benchmarking labour productivity. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research opportunities.

Policy or regulatory risks represent one of the major barriers for renewable energy investments, especially against the background of several retrospective reductions of support schemes in Europe. This paper aims to contribute to the literature by offering a categorization of major risk drivers and determinants of policy risk associated with renewable energy projects in developed countries.

Based on a narrative (traditional) review of the academic literature and supported by industry studies regarding cases of support scheme cuts in Europe (from the end of 2010 until the end of 2013), the paper derives determinants of policy risks of renewable energy investments.

As a main result, the paper offers a concise categorization of major risk drivers of policy and regulatory risks associated with renewable energy investments in developed countries along with potential indicators.

The derived categorization of major risk drivers and the set of indicators are of high relevance for risk management and risk assessment of renewable energy investments, where understanding the underlying risk drivers is vital. The findings can thus be applied when establishing a sound risk management for renewable energy investments.

The paper helps (potential) investors, policymakers and regulators to assess policy risks associated with renewable energy investments.

The purpose of this paper shows the effect of hot and humid weather conditions (HHWCs) on workers that has resulted in considerable loss in the construction industry, especially during the hottest periods due to decline in worker productivity (WP). Until the last few decades, there is very limited research on construction WP in HHWCs. Nevertheless, these studies have sparked interests on seeking for the most appropriate methods to assess the impact of HHWCs on construction workers.

This paper begins by reviewing the current measuring methods on WP in HHWCs, follows by presenting the potential impact of HHWCs on WP. The paper highlights the methodological deficiencies, which consequently provides a platform for scholars and practitioners to direct future research to resolve the significant productivity loss due to global warming. This paper highlights the need to identify the limitations and advantages of the current methods to formulate a framework of new approaches to measure the WP in HHWCs.

Results show that the methods used in providing real-time response on the effects of HHWCs on WP in construction at project, task and crew levels are limited. An integration of nonintrusive real-time monitoring system and local weather measurement with real-time data synchronisation and analysis is required to produce suitable information to determine worker health- and safety-related decisions in HHWCs.

The comprehensive literature review makes an original contribution to WP measurements filed in HHWCs in the construction industry. Results of this review provide researchers and practitioners with an insight into challenges associated with the measurements methods and solving practical site measurements issues. The findings will also enable the researchers and practitioners to bridge the identified research gaps in this research field and enhance the ability to provide accurate measures in HHWCs. The proposed research framework may promote potential improvements in the productivity measurements methods, which support researchers and practitioners in developing new innovative methods in HHWCs with the integration of the most recent monitoring technologies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Thomas Pynchon's novel Against the Day as a symptomatology of organization and examine the (un)easy relationship between the novel and organization.

The novel is explored through three interrelated readings: first, the novel is considered as a representation of the gruesome nature of capitalist ordering; Second, the novel's textual strategies are examined to consider its co‐implication and knotting into the very logic of organization it abhors; Third, the novel is read as a search for other spaces haunting the broken machine of capitalist organizing.

The paper shows how Pynchon's writing and critique of capitalist organizing occupies an indeterminate space characterised by the ambivalence of ambivalence, where deciding upon its final meaning is a reductivist strategy ill suited to this complex text. Instead the novel functions through a complex process of displacement and emplacement.

Theoretically, the paper extends further the understanding of the relationship between literature and organization, challenging reductivist readings of this relationship to explore how the novel simultaneously emplaces and displaces the reader so that critique, as well as convention, are thoroughly unsettled.

Labour productivity plays an important role in the successful delivery of engineering, procurement and construction projects. This paper aims to present a field study that determines the effects of a set of variables on daily and/or short‐term jobsite labour productivity, using artificial neural network model.

The data used in this paper were collected over a period of ten months, directly from the job sites of two building construction projects in Montreal. A neural network model was used to study a number of factors considered to impact labour productivity on daily basis. These included temperature, relative‐humidity, wind speed, precipitation, gang size, crew composition, height of work, type of work and construction method employed. The data were then analyzed to determine the influence of these parameters on site labour productivity.

Among the nine parameters studied, temperature was found to have the most significant impact on productivity, closely followed by the height then by the type of work. Given the range of the collected data available on the variables considered, temperature, humidity and crew composition were found each to have a similar trend, with an optimum value that corresponds to the normalized maximum productivity.

The findings of this paper will provide awareness and better understanding of parameters that impact labour productivity in building construction.

The purpose of this chapter is to outline the rationale for and approach to enhancing community participation in traffic safety initiatives. It describes a process that practitioners can use to engage members of the public in the development of community-based solutions to traffic safety problems. The approach used draws on contemporary social theory, historical antecedents, and demonstrated best practices for effective engagement efforts.

The implications of the ideas developed in this chapter include the need for traffic safety and related agencies to develop and deploy new or expanded capacities as they implement community-level traffic safety initiatives. One such capacity is the development of greater interdisciplinary understanding of sociopolitical dynamics that support and/or inhibit the effectiveness of behavior change efforts. Another is the ability to employ practical participatory processes that engage community members so as to draw out the tacit but critical knowledge about barriers to and avenues for supporting behavior change strategies. These increase the likelihood of developing traffic safety strategies that are effective within the specific and unique culture of each community.