Telework/telecommuting: time and space flexibilities in work and business organization

The words telework and telecommuting-almost synonymous-were coined in 1973 by Jack Nilles, a physicist and missile expert, when he was director of interdisciplinary research at the University of Southern California. They were also popularized by Francis Kinsman in The Telecommuters (1987). The importance of the problematic of telework for geographers and planners is captured by the domain name of ITAC (International Telework Association and Council): www.workingfromanywhere.org. Indeed, the very nature of telework, from which results its social and economic impacts, is to provide firms and workers with time and space flexibilities in labor organization (Moriset 2004).