Why Connectors Create the Future (And Consumers Don't) with Peter Block

Why Connectors Create the Future (And Consumers Don't) with Peter Block

Why the shape of your room determines who has power

Bernie J Mitchell, Peter Block
– 7 min read
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Why Connectors Create the Future (And Consumers Don't) with Peter Block
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“To me, rearranging the room is a metaphor for rearranging how you and I find each other.” - Peter Block.

Unreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026.

🎟️ Tickets go on sale in January 2026.

The entire day is co-created by the coworking community builders on the co-creation waitlist.

Join The Wait List

Peter Block doesn’t give keynotes anymore. Not really.

He asks people to move the chairs.

That’s the work. Move them out of rows. Put them in circles. Watch the room change.

Peter is the author of Community: The Structure of Belonging—a book that’s shaped how thousands of coworking operators think about what they’re actually building.

He’s spent decades working with corporations and Cincinnati neighbourhoods, slowly dismantling our addiction to the market economy and replacing it with something older: the creative economy.

Not “creative” as in artsy. Creative, as in we make things together.

In this conversation, Bernie digs into what that actually means for anyone running a coworking space. Because Peter doesn’t see your space as real estate. He sees it as a “convening possibility”—a place where strangers might discover they’re not alone, not crazy, and that there’s nothing wrong with them.

The market economy wants you to be a consumer. Buy the membership. Use the wifi. Complain when expectations aren’t met.

The creative economy wants you to be a citizen. Create the culture. Connect the strangers. Build something you can’t purchase.

Bernie brings his usual questions about what this means practically—how do you actually invite people to something they care about? What’s the difference between entertainment and experience? Why does sitting in circles change everything?

Peter’s answer cuts to the bone: “Your coworking spaces, the way you do them, are designed for liberation, not for productivity. Do I want you to be productive? Yes, but that’s the easy part. The hard part is to create culture and space for liberation.”

If you’ve read Community and wondered how to apply it, this is your next step.

If you’ve never read it, consider this your invitation.

Timeline Highlights

[00:04] Bernie sets up why Peter Block matters: “A lot of people in coworking have referenced Community, the Structure of Belonging.”

[02:31] Peter on what he’d like to be known for: “Loving uncertainty, gratitude, being kind from time to time.”

[03:59] The question that unlocks everything: “How do they get into the neighbourhood?”

[05:36] Why Black Friday tells us everything wrong with the market economy: “It was named Black because that’s when the retail stores start to make money.”

[06:44] Bernie tells the Contingent Works story—punks, David Bowie’s school, the Blitz Club, and a carpet shop in Bromley

[10:09] “The connector is what creates genuine wealth, an authentic wealth.”

[10:09] “You’re designing an experience where they become agents, they become connectors instead of leaders.”

[12:55] Bernie asks about colonial thinking, and Peter traces it to the 1600s Enclosure

[14:40] The health data that should change everything: “If you live in a coworking context, you’re going to live two years longer.”

[16:14] The missionary quote that captures colonialism: “When I opened my eyes, I was holding the Bible, and they owned the land.”

[22:05] ACTionism discussion: “Anxiety means that I’m alive. And my aliveness is created by our capacity to create something.”

[34:42] The developer meeting where Peter changed everything by askin,g “What is the crossroads you’re at?”

[36:09] Common good protocols vs royal protocols: “They’re up front. They’re on a platform. They have microphones.”

[37:42] “You find it everywhere if you’re looking for it”—pocket neighbourhoods, churches, coworking spaces

[42:04] The liberation line: “Your coworking spaces are designed for liberation, not for productivity.”

The Market Economy’s Hidden Colonialism

Peter traces our current isolation back to a specific moment: Enclosure in the 1600s.

Common land where people could support themselves was fenced in because sheep were more profitable. We’ve never recovered.

What started as a physical enclosure became psychological. The market economy doesn’t just want your money—it wants your identity. It turns you into a consumer, an audience member, a demographic to be sold to. Gen X, Gen D, Gen R. We label each generation according to what we can extract from them.

Coworking, with that small “co” at the front, offers something different. An invitation to produce together rather than consume alone.

But only if the people running these spaces understand what they’re actually doing.

Why Connectors Create Wealth (And Consumers Destroy It)

Peter distinguishes between wealth (scale, upward mobility, accumulation) and genuine wealth (health, safety, connection, purpose).

The market economy measures well-being by what can be monetised. Gross domestic product loves isolation—every transaction it can insert between neighbours is a win.

Coworking spaces, at their best, create genuine wealth. They’re places where a local graphic designer meets a local bakery owner, bypassing extraction entirely.

Bernie gets this instinctively from his newsletter work. He’s been writing about the difference between the market economy and creative economy for years. Peter gives him the language to understand why it matters.

The alternative isn’t anti-economic. It’s a different economy.

The Geometry of Democracy

Peter believes that how you arrange furniture is a political act.

Sit in rows facing a stage? You’re recreating a monarchy. The person at the podium holds power. Everyone else waits to be entertained, instructed, or sold to.

Sit in circles facing each other? Power gets distributed. You’re accountable to the person whose knees you can touch. You can’t hide behind your phone.

He tells the story of a developer meeting. Eighty angry neighbours showed up ready to fight. Instead of letting them line up at microphones to yell at the suits, Peter broke them into small groups. He asked: “What is the crossroads you’re at in this neighbourhood? When did you first start caring about this place?”

By the end of the hour, they weren’t angry anymore. They felt connected. The developers said, “Thank you for coming. I got it.”

Same people. Same building. Different geometry. Different outcome.

Safety as Connection, Not Police

Peter is blunt about the American obsession with safety: it’s a product being marketed.

The narrative is simple: the world is dangerous, you are vulnerable, buy this alarm system, vote for this tough-on-crime politician.

He flips this entirely. A safe neighbourhood isn’t one with more police cars. It’s one where neighbours know each other’s names.

He organises gatherings where, instead of asking “How can the police protect us?”, he asks a terrifying question: “What is my contribution to the lack of safety in this neighbourhood?”

This forces people to confront their own withdrawal. Their judgment of the “other.” Their refusal to engage.

For coworking operators, this reframes everything. Your space isn’t safe because of the keycard system. It’s safe because people know each other’s first names.

From Anxiety to Action

Bernie brings up ACTionism—the documentary he’s been encouraging coworking spaces to screen. What caught Peter’s eye was the phrase “We went from anxiety to action.”

Peter unpacks this beautifully. Anxiety means you’re alive. It’s not a problem to be medicated away. It’s a signal that you care about something and don’t know what to do about it.

The market economy wants you to consume your way out of anxiety. Buy the self-help book. Download the meditation app. Take the prescription.

The creative economy offers a different path: create something with others that you care about. Find your agency. Stop waiting for someone else’s transformation.

This is what coworking promises at its best. Not a cure for anxiety, but a context where anxiety becomes fuel.

Common Good Protocols vs Royal Protocols

Peter distinguishes between two kinds of protocols that govern how we come together.

Royal protocols (what we inherited from colonialism): Robert’s Rules of Order, old business, new business, discussion, vote. “I promise to get you out of here by 5:25.” These protocols prioritise efficiency and control. They keep us well-behaved.

Common good protocols (what Peter is trying to recover): Ask ambiguous, uncomfortable questions. “Why was it important for you to be here today?” Break into small groups. Let people find each other before the keynote begins. Value connection over content.

Bernie recognises this from his own Unreasonable Connection events—monthly online gatherings where people spend 40 minutes talking in small groups before coming back to share. No presentation. No expert. Just a connection.

Peter’s point is simple: we don’t need new content. We need new containers. The structure of how we gather determines what becomes possible.

Liberation Over Productivity

The line that stopped Bernie: “Your coworking spaces, the way you do them, are designed for liberation, not for productivity. Do I want you to be productive? Yes, but that’s the easy part. The hard part is to create culture and space for liberation.”

Liberation meaning: I came here to create something with other people, even if we never talked about it.

This is Peter’s gift to every coworking operator exhausted by the amenity wars. You’re not competing with WeWork on wifi speed or coffee quality. You’re offering something they can’t systematise: the experience of being seen, of belonging, of discovering that your future is in your own hands.

The market economy will always win in terms of efficiency. The creative economy wins on humanity.

The Invitation

Peter’s not trying to save neighbourhoods all over the world. “They don’t need saving. They need to be seen.”

That’s the work. Not heroic intervention, but patient attention. Showing up week after week, rearranging the chairs, asking the uncomfortable questions, creating the spaces where strangers become neighbours.

Bernie’s been doing this for years through the podcast, through the London Coworking Assembly, through the Unreasonable Connection events. Peter gives him the theoretical framework for what he already knows in his bones.

The question for anyone listening is simple: What are you convening? And who’s showing up to create something together?

Peter Block’s Work

Mentioned in Episode

Projects & Community

Bernie’s Projects

One More Thing

Coworking brings communities together, helping people find and share their voices.

Each episode of the Coworking Values Podcast explores Accessibility, Community, Openness, Collaboration, and Sustainability—values that shape the spaces where we gather, work, and grow.

If this resonates with you, rate, follow, and share the podcast. Your support helps others discover how coworking enriches lives, builds careers, and strengthens communities.

Community is the key 🔑

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Written by
Bernie J Mitchell
Peter Block