Photo: Melker Dahlström / imagebank.sweden.se
Reframing perspectives on territory and future research
This sixth and final report from the Remote work and multilocality post-pandemic project has sought to review the latest academic literature on the spatial implications of remote work and put such discourse into dialogue with the findings of the Nordic-specific reports made throughout the project. In doing so, we find that many of the themes brought up in the international literature are present also in the Nordic Region. The work has also revealed many opportunities for further research and new ways of conceptualising work to account for hybrid practices that will continue in our post-pandemic situation.
Reimagining how we conceptualise and measure spaces of work
New working patterns may suggest a rethinking of how space is conceptualised and used. The way individuals navigate their environments may no longer adhere to pre-existing divisions of, for example, urban versus rural, work versus leisure, or production versus consumption. Zheng et al. (2022) notes how most studies tend to divide urban space into central areas versus suburban areas, but this divide fails to account for the complex reality of urban space, which requires a more nuanced classification system. This is especially true as urban and suburban spaces take on new and multiple functionalities, thereby changing notions of what constitutes a functional urban area or a labour market area.
Scholars acknowledge that these emerging complexities make it difficult to measure remote work, let alone incorporate it into policy (Zenkteler et al., 2022). Di Marino et al. (2018) emphasise that cities and regions must be viewed “less as a contained functional area inside administrative borders, and rather more as a network of places that is both attractive and sufficiently flexible to allow appropriation by different users for different purposes” (25-26). Gurstein (2023) also calls for conceptualising our living environments as a “network of locations that includes the central office, the home office, satellite offices, and third spaces, social spaces such as coworking spaces and cafés in neighbourhoods” (350). Therefore, spatial planning may need to adopt new approaches, for example, a networks-based, flows-based, or temporal-based approach. Such ways of reframing our perspectives on territory have existed long before the pandemic,
See, for example, Henri Lefebvre’s The Urban Revolution (1970), Doreen Massey’s “A global sense of place” (1991), and Manuel Castells’ “Towards a sociology of the network society” (2000).
Future research
This project revealed a need for further research on the spatial implications of remote work in the Nordic context. The following themes are particularly relevant:
- This project has pointed to the potentials of remote work to increase the attractiveness of smaller towns and rural areas. However, limitations and uncertainties related to the extent and character of remote work impacts over time and potential adverse effects of remote work patterns were also uncovered. The international literature covered in this report questions the power of remote work to change the fate of less densely populated areas. To strengthen regional development policy, it would be valuable to know more about what remote work could realistically bring to different geographical contexts, with emphasis on areas with a shrinking population.
- Spatial implications of remote and hybrid work on cities have been an important theme in international research. However, in the Nordic context, such research is limited, despite the high levels of remote work in these countries. Further, impacts on medium-sized towns are generally under-researched. As the international literature shows, remote and hybrid work arrangements have the power to change the function of urban cores. They can also reinforce the need to develop polycentric cities or incorporate the 15-minute-city ideal into spatial planning, among other things. Studies that investigate the positive and negative impacts of remote work in Nordic cities and towns could inform policymakers and planners so that they can determine whether, and how to, steer remote work practices strategically so as to benefit from long-term opportunities while mitigating negative effects.
- On the regional and national scales, migration and other population movements between areas caused by remote work need to be better understood to support regional development policy. One core theme of future research should be the impacts of remote and hybrid work habits on mobility solutions, as is underpinned by the international literature. In the Nordic context, impacts on and development of public transport solutions would be essential for securing the availability and attractiveness of such services long term, as well as how to support active mobility from a regional as well as local perspective.
The Nordic Council of Ministers could contribute to this research through the activities suggested in the policy brief linked to this project, arranging a knowledge sharing event, establishing a Nordic task force and developing a partnership program.