REmote-working Multiple impacts in the Age of disruptions: socioeconomic transformations, territorial rethinKING, and policy actions

Today, RW is mostly conceived as an arrangement enabling flexible work organization. However, REMAKING contends that RW can be more than that.

If the multiple effects induced by RW on individuals, business models and the socio-economic sphere are properly understood and addressed by policymakers, it might become a lever contributing to shaping ongoing social, economic, and spatial structural changes.

At the basis of REMAKING there is a profound consideration of the ongoing megatrends (i.e., digital transformation, flexibilization of production models) that have initiated RW and of the recent shocks (i.e., the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine) that have consolidated the diffusion of different forms of RW.

Through this angle, the multiple effects induced by RW call for rigorous analyses to support decision-makers in balancing opportunities and problems linked to RW for a potential rethinking of territories, namely in rural areas.

REMAKING aims at delivering a policy-oriented framework reflecting the new and multi-faceted realities of RW, facilitating policymakers to adopt place-based policies balancing the opportunities and risks of RW and sharing practices to foster mutual learning on RW in the novel scenario of megatrends and shocks.

These objectives will be achieved through participatory research activities across 4 case studies, each addressing a different form of RW (digital nomadism, post-pandemic, high-skilled in hi-tech sectors and enforced remote workers).

The 4 case studies encompass overall 7 countries(Italy, Greece, Portugal, Germany, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Ireland): for each country, 1 second-tier city and 1 rural area will be studied.

REMAKING generates an impact on socio-spatial transformation processes across second-tier cities and rural areas in terms of improved planning, design and implementation of multi-level policy, promotion of territorial socio-economic resilience and development, and advanced understanding of RW multiple impacts.