Proceedings of 8th European Assembly on telework (Telework2001)

67in the future the majority <strong>of</strong> jobs will consist <strong>of</strong> delocalisable ‘knowledge work’ but on the contraryimplies that a high proportion <strong>of</strong> jobs will remain firmly rooted geographically to a given spot (beit a hospital, a school, a factory or a supermarket) whilst other jobs, albeit mobile, will requirephysical co-presence at predetermined places (whether this involves laying cables or laying tables,delivering goods or delivering babies, maintaining garden plants or maintaining power plants).It also seems likely that, despite the homogenising effect <strong>of</strong> global cultures dominated bytransnational corporations, the distinguishing features <strong>of</strong> individual places may well becomemore rather than less important as localities are pushed into competition with each other forniche positions in the new global markets. The decision, for instance, whether to arrange one’shoneymoon in the Seychelles, Bali or Barbados, to get one’s s<strong>of</strong>tware developed in India, Russiaor Brazil, or to buy one’s c<strong>of</strong>fee from Nicaragua, Kenya or Colombia may well hinge on quite smalldifferences. The cumulative effect <strong>of</strong> such decisions, however, may have a dramatic impact on thelivelihoods <strong>of</strong> local inhabitants.Regions which lack the infrastructure or the skills base to enable their citizens to enter theinformation economy at all seem likely to be multiply disadvantaged. One could argue, therefore,that far from being dead, geography is assuming greater and greater importance in shapingindividual life-chances.the ’electronic cottage’Another related myth, first promulgated in the 1970s, by Alvin T<strong>of</strong>fler 8 , is that <strong>of</strong> the ’electroniccottage’ which presumes a universal trend towards home-based teleworking which, in someaccounts, is expected eventually to include almost the entire population. Whilst it is quite possiblethat there will be a continuing move <strong>of</strong> activities involving the digital processing <strong>of</strong> informationinto the home, it is necessary to remember that such activities are likely to remain a small minority<strong>of</strong> all human economic activity.The proportion <strong>of</strong> the working population whose jobs allow them to work in this way for part <strong>of</strong>the working week seems likely to reach a ceiling <strong>of</strong> an absolute maximum <strong>of</strong> 30% <strong>of</strong> the workingpopulation in the most advanced economies; however the proportion actually wanting to do so maybe smaller than this. Current statistics suggest that, even using the broadest definitions, teleworkersworking at or from their homes constitute less than 15% <strong>of</strong> the workforce even in the countrieswhere this practice is most highly developed 9 .Even if a substantial proportion choose to work in this way, the notion that their homes cansomehow become isolated self-contained rural units linked to the rest <strong>of</strong> the world entirelybe electronic means remains implausible, because people, even teleworkers, cannot live byinformation alone. They will still need to buy, or have delivered to them, food and other goods;they may well have partners, parents or children who need to travel to work or school, they willneed to visit (or be visited by) doctors, dentists, hairdressers, plumbers, repair technicians and otherspecialists; they will probably want to see their friends.8 T<strong>of</strong>fl er, A. The Third Wave, Pan, London, 19819 Huws, U. and Jagger, N., Teleworking and Globalisation, Institute for Employment Studies, 1999