Post-pandemic geographies of working from home : more of the same for spatial inequalities?

Abstract

Rather than being an indiscriminate ‘greater leveller’, it is widely recognised that the burden of the covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath has largely mirrored longstanding cleavages of social and spatial disadvantage. This paper considers how the nature and effects of the mass covid-induced shift to remote and hybrid working can inform theorisations of contemporary regional inequalities. Through a loosening of the relationship between the geography of home and employment, in theory, these novel working practices and associated changing residential preferences hold potential for easing spatial disparities. Drawing predominantly on interviews and workshops across 15 UK case study areas, this analysis however contends that stark social and spatial divides in the prevalence of remote/hybrid working mean that the propagation of working from home (WFH) may well in fact entrench rather than alleviate geographical inequalities, as working practices have improved for the mainly higher socio-economic employees who can WFH (overrepresented in prosperous areas) but remain largely unchanged for the majority of the workforce elsewhere who cannot WFH. In this sense, the resilience of core–periphery economic geographies is just as compelling as the significant shift in working practices and residential preferences that the pandemic created. Consequently, caution is needed to avoid a fetishisation of ostensibly transformed post-pandemic geographies of work–home relations and their potential as a panacea for spatial inequalities.