Reworking boundaries in the home-as-office: boundary traffic during COVID-19 lockdown and the future of working from home

IF 3.6 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy Pub Date : 2022-05-17 DOI:10.1080/15487733.2022.2063097
U. Wethal, Katherine Ellsworth-Krebs, A. Hansen, Sejal Changede, G. Spaargaren
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引用次数: 16

Abstract

Abstract The COVID-19 crisis has led to an unprecedented acceleration in the number of people working from home (WFH). This article applies a practice theoretical lens to expand the pre-pandemic telework literature which often overlooks how WFH is part of complex socio-material arrangements. Based on 56 household interviews in the UK, the United States, and Norway during lockdown in Spring 2020, we reveal the everyday realities of WFH, exploring their implications for the future of work. Developing the concept of boundary traffic, which refers to the additional interaction and collision of a range of everyday practices normally separated in time and space when working outside the home, we provide some insights into how disruption and de- and re-routinization vary by household type, space, and employer’s actions. Much teleworking scholarship highlights technological and spatial flexibility of work, without recognizing the mundane realities of WFH when there is no space for a large computer monitor, preferences to be with children even when a secluded home office is available, or a feeling that important social connections diminish when working on a virtual basis. We discuss the future of work in relation to digitalization, social inequality, and environmental sustainability and conclude by stressing how WFH cannot be understood as merely a technical solution to work-life flexibility. Rather, lockdown-induced WFH has deeply changed the meaning and content of homes as households have resolved the spatial, material, social, and temporal aspects of boundary traffic when embedding work into the domestic practice-bundle.
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在家办公的边界重塑:COVID-19封锁期间的边界交通和在家工作的未来
2019冠状病毒病危机导致在家工作的人数空前增加。本文运用实践理论视角来扩展流行病前远程工作文献,这些文献往往忽略了远程工作如何成为复杂的社会物质安排的一部分。根据2020年春季封锁期间在英国、美国和挪威进行的56个家庭访谈,我们揭示了WFH的日常现实,探讨了它们对未来工作的影响。发展边界交通的概念,它指的是在家庭之外工作时,在时间和空间上通常分离的一系列日常实践的额外互动和碰撞,我们提供了一些关于破坏、去常规化和重新常规化如何因家庭类型、空间和雇主的行为而变化的见解。许多远程办公学术强调了工作的技术和空间灵活性,而没有认识到WFH的世俗现实,当没有空间放置大型电脑显示器时,即使有隐蔽的家庭办公室也喜欢和孩子在一起,或者在虚拟基础上工作时重要的社会联系减少的感觉。我们讨论了与数字化、社会不平等和环境可持续性相关的未来工作,并强调WFH不能仅仅被理解为工作与生活灵活性的技术解决方案。相反,由于家庭将工作嵌入到家庭实践中,解决了边界交通的空间、物质、社会和时间方面的问题,封锁导致的WFH深刻地改变了家庭的意义和内容。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy
Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy Social Sciences-Geography, Planning and Development
CiteScore
12.00
自引率
0.00%
发文量
54
审稿时长
27 weeks
期刊介绍: Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy is a refereed, open-access journal which recognizes that climate change and other socio-environmental challenges require significant transformation of existing systems of consumption and production. Complex and diverse arrays of societal factors and institutions will in coming decades need to reconfigure agro-food systems, implement renewable energy sources, and reinvent housing, modes of mobility, and lifestyles for the current century and beyond. These innovations will need to be formulated in ways that enhance global equity, reduce unequal access to resources, and enable all people on the planet to lead flourishing lives within biophysical constraints. The journal seeks to advance scientific and political perspectives and to cultivate transdisciplinary discussions involving researchers, policy makers, civic entrepreneurs, and others. The ultimate objective is to encourage the design and deployment of both local experiments and system innovations that contribute to a more sustainable future by empowering individuals and organizations and facilitating processes of social learning.
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