ABSTRACT
This chapter begins from the premise that the workplace is a key urban geographic concept, underpinning research on urban structure and commuting, and implicit in many planning policies. The chapter argues that, for Millennials, this categorization of city spaces is outmoded. With mobile communication technologies, ubiquitous data downloading, and wifi available in most public, semi-public and transport-related places, the idea that one has finite choices about where to perform work-related activities is decreasingly valid. For certain individuals, especially those involved in the gig economy, work is hypermobile and can be performed across the city: at home, while commuting, in cafes and airport lounges, and elsewhere. Conversely, from the perspective of urban planners and city managers, work is no longer performed exclusively in places zoned for work. Economic activity can no longer be neatly cordoned off in spatially circumscribed areas. The author provides a conceptual framework for thinking about the location of work and discusses whether this phenomenon is widespread or only relevant to a minority of high-status workers. It discusses some of the social consequences of the phenomenon, which could be empowering or disempowering, for the Millennial generation who will encounter a predominantly different geography of value-creation and work compared to previous generations.
