New technology, work and employment, vol. 18, no. 3, November 2003

This special issue of the journal explores the topic of teleworking. 'What's in a name?: definitions and conceptualisations of teleworking and homeworking' by Cath Sullivan (p. 158-165) discusses aspects of the debate over the concept of telework and argues that project-specific definitions are useful and inevitable; 'Knowledge work in distributed environments: issues and illusions' by Pasi Pyoria (p. 166-180) presents empirical evidence of telework in Finland, revealing that, despite Finland's sophisticated technological infrastructure, only four per cent of Finnish wage earners consider themselves engaged in telework and a further four per cent had tried telework; 'Controlling teleworkers: supervision and flexibility revisited' by Dimitrina Dimitrova (p. 181-195) examines the issue of control and autonomy in telework through interviews with professional, managerial and sales teleworkers in a large Canadian telecommunications company, finding that changes in control and autonomy are limited to restructuring of the work schedule; 'The psychological impact of teleworking: stress, emotions and health' by Sandi Mann and Lynn Holdsworth (p. 196-211) compares the psychological impact of teleworking to that of office-based work. The findings suggest a negative emotional impact of teleworking with teleworkers experiencing significantly more mental health symptoms of stress than office-workers and slightly more physical health symptoms; 'Remote working: altering the spatial contours of work and home in the new economy' by Irene Hardill and Anne Green (p. 212-222) contextualises telework within the new economy, demonstrating that the temporal pattern of work has changed in its daily, weekly and monthly rhythms, but so has the 'spatiality' of work as some paid work is undertaken at home or in cyberspace. It is argued that telecommuting can be used to 'improve' the lifestyles of long distance weekly commuters and their families; 'What is family friendly about the workplace in the home': the case of self-employed parents and their children' by Susan Baines and Ulrike Gelder (p. 223-234) examines the 'family friendliness' of making the home a site of paid work from the perspective of British self-employed parents. Show less