ABSTRACT
The way we live our lives and use our homes and workplaces, our villages, towns and cities is changing. In the past the idea of home-based work was thought to undermine ‘home’ as a domestic refuge from the male world of work, while the practice was thought to be bad for people’s health and well-being. And so, as we have seen, society was organized to restrict and even prohibit this working practice. These attitudes persist and still have some lingering currency. But in the context of the digital revolution and more women in employment than ever before, home-based work can be viewed through a very different lens: as a cutting-edge practice with the potential to ease a range of contemporary social problems. And this is not true only for middle-class professionals; blue-collar home-based work has equal potential. This chapter will explore how the idea of home-based work can contribute to the debate about how to achieve a more sustainable future.
