culturebriefs
9:49in productionCh. 1 · What it is/ 9:49 · ceiling 15 min
Society · Cities

Remote work

Remote work didn’t liberate labour—it relocated capital’s control over time and space.

Remote work is working from home or another non-office space. It began on a small scale for large employers in the early 1970s using dumb terminals and telephone lines. Jack Nilles coined 'telecommuting' and 'telework' in 1973. The motto 'work is something you do, not something you travel to' arrived in 1995. Workplace hazard controls during the COVID-19 pandemic catalysed a rapid, global shift for white-collar workers in 2020—and a 2020 study found 93% of world workers lived in countries with workplace closures. A 2024 PNAS study found remote work dispersed economic activity away from city centres, especially in cities with high remote-work adoption.

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Chapters & takeaways4
  1. 0:58
    What it is

    Remote work means working from home or another non-office space—not hybrid, not flexible hours, not hot-desking.

  2. 2:52
    Where it came from

    It started in the early 1970s with terminal-based networking—and was named, then reframed, before it scaled.

  3. 4:31
    How it went global

    The pandemic forced it globally—but only for white-collar workers, under emergency hazard controls.

  4. 6:07
    What it changed

    It moved money: economic activity dispersed from city centres, especially where remote work was dense.

Worth your time?

Yes. Study the whole thing.

3.5/ 5
What works
  • displaces economic activity from city centres
  • exposes infrastructural assumptions about work and time
  • reveals who holds leverage when location is optional
What does not
  • liberate all workers
  • apply to non-white-collar roles
  • originate in the 2020s
Study it if
  • white-collar workers
  • large employers
  • city-centre economies
Skip it if
  • service workers
  • care workers
  • manufacturing workers
The written brief1 min read

What the thing is

Remote work is working from home or another non-office space.

Where it came from

It began on a small scale in the 1970s, using dumb terminals and telephone lines to link satellite offices to mainframes. Jack Nilles coined ‘telecommuting’ and ‘telework’ in 1973. The motto ‘work is something you do, not something you travel to’ arrived in 1995.

What it gets right

Remote work disperses economic activity away from city centres. A 2024 PNAS study confirmed this in cities with high remote-work adoption.

What it gets wrong

It presumes flexibility is universal. It began for large employers on a small scale in the 1970s—never for service, care or manufacturing workers.

Why it matters now

Workplace hazard controls during the COVID-19 pandemic catalysed a rapid, global shift for white-collar workers in 2020—and a 2020 study found 93% of world workers lived in countries with workplace closures.

Is it worth your time

Yes—if you care where economic activity happens, who benefits from it, and how work reshapes cities and time.

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