ABSTRACT
The outbreak of COVID-19 has posed new challenges to mobility for many and has concomitantly stimulated an increase in digital work for some. Favored by new remote-working policies following the crisis, some people now travel and work remotely from alternative locations. The diffusion of remote work has also prompted new opportunities to repopulate rural areas, return “home,” and rethink career and life projects. This chapter explores the return of professionals to South Italy and their remote work practices. This phenomenon, also known as “South Working,” has intensified with the recent pandemic. The term “South Working” derives from the association South Working—Lavorare dal Sud, which promotes virtual working practices and fosters development projects in areas where mobility infrastructures and internet connectivity are still limited. The chapter aims at understanding the experience of “remoteness” for these workers at multiple levels: how do they make sense of the “remoteness” of these destinations vis-à-vis work? How do they navigate the corporeal and spatial disjuncture shaping the experience of being a “remote worker”? How do they practice various (im)mobilities in and from these remote places while (re)making career and life trajectories?
