COWORKING PODCAST 158
Felicia Fai, Associate Professor of Innovation and Regional Resilience at the University of Bath School of Management
What does research actually say about coworking spaces — and why should policymakers care?
In this episode of the GCUC Podcast, host Liz Elam sits down with Dr. Felicia Fai, Associate Professor of Innovation and Regional Resilience at the University of Bath School of Management, and one of the few academics dedicated to studying how coworking spaces truly benefit entrepreneurs, communities, and regional economies.
Felicia’s work shines a light on independent operators outside major cities — the spaces quietly having an enormous impact while rarely making headlines. Together, Liz and Felicia dig into why coworking spaces are so much more than just real estate, how the UK compares with Ireland in terms of policy support for flex spaces, and what the industry desperately needs for policymakers to take notice.
They cover:
- How Felicia’s research journey led her from corporate resilience to coworking
- Why the lack of hard data is the industry’s biggest vulnerability
- The case for coworking spaces as “activist organizations” and place-shapers
- What’s missing in UK policy — and what Ireland is doing right
- The one thing the industry could do today to help researchers (and itself)
- Industry life cycles, the coming “shakeout,” and what operators need to survive it
Whether you’re running a space, building community, or making the case to a local council, this episode gives you the research-backed language to tell a bigger story.