The emergence of teleworking as a mainstream arrangement opens up the prospect of a change in the pattern of household task with potential for more women-friendly household organisation.
There is a need to ensure that teleworking does not develop simply as a facility for the wealthy or the middle income groups in society but that it also develops as an option for low income groups.
Historically low income groups have either been involved in complex labour migration cycles or lived close to their workplaces. The costs of daily commuting necessitate high salaries to make journeys acceptable and reducing the costs of travel often requires a substantial front end investment in season tickets and similar arrangements.
Given the history of either highly local employment for low income groups or distant and seasonal employment for low income groups, there is good reason to suppose that teleworking arrangements could greatly contribute towards the relocalisation of neighbourhoods.
There may be need for the development of specialised communication systems to enable low income households to make use of teleworking facilities: the availability of in home networked terminals provided through local authorities could greatly reduce the costs of information technology to low income households.
Such networked terminals could greatly assist single mothers in obtaining employment both directly in the home and within local neighbourhoods.
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Margaret Grieco
Professor of Transport and Society
Transport Research Institute, Napier University
66 Spylaw Road, Edinburgh EH10 5BR
e-mail at m.grieco@napier.ac.uk