Abstract
Existing urban research has focused on gender differences in commuting patterns to and from homes, but has paid little attention to the gendered diversity in the spatiotemporal patterns of work. The increase in remote working and information and communications technology (ICT) work has been emphasised, but at the cost of exploring the full range of workplaces and multi-locational working observed in urban areas. This article develops a new classificatory system to analyse the spatiotemporal patterns of work in European cities using the 2015 6th European Working Conditions Survey. We identify 12 distinct spatiotemporal work patterns of full-time workers and investigate gender differences across these patterns against the backdrop of occupation, industrial sector, employment status, household composition and ICT use. Findings show that women are far more likely to be restricted to only working at the employer/business premises while men have more varied and complex spatiotemporal patterns of work. Multi-locational working rather than working at one workplace is a largely male phenomenon. Working exclusively at home is still a rarity, but combinations with employer premises and other workplaces are more common. We conclude that workplace research has been blinkered by narrow concerns of advances in mobile technologies and has been blind to the pervasive effects of spatiotemporal divisions in the working lives of men and women. The methodological and theoretical implications of this new perspective on workplaces for urban development and research are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2207-2232 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | Urban Studies |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| Early online date | 28 Feb 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to pay special thanks to the Urban Studies Foundation seminar series ?Reconceptualising Urban Landscapes of Work?, which stimulated some of the ideas for this article. We are grateful for the advice from Mathijn Wilkens and Agnes Parent-Thirion of Eurofound concerning the European Working Conditions Survey dataset, and to Gill Butterworth for her proof-reading skills. We would also like to thank the careful work of the editors and anonymous referees for their encouragement and suggestions. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Darja Reuschke?s time spent on this article was funded by the European Research Council Starting Grant WORKANDHOME (ERC- 2014-STG 639403).
Publisher Copyright:
© Urban Studies Journal Limited 2020.
Keywords
- homeworking
- occupational gender segregation
- remote work
- self-employment
- third places
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
- Urban Studies
