The limits of telecommuting: Policy challenges of counterurbanisation as a pandemic response

Abstract

A prominent aspect of many people's experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a practice known as telecommuting, which typically involves working from home. Telecommuting has been a key response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has translated into an increasingly and explicitly expressed desire to move out of cities and into nonmetropolitan areas where housing is less dense and infection rates are lower. This interest in counterurbanisation is an understandable response to self-isolation. However, many postpandemic telecommuters are likely to be knowledge workers for whom some presence in the office during the working week may be required, and that may limit their counterurban moves to metropolitan hinterlands and regions. Commuter-based population growth in metropolitan-proximate and peri-urban settlements may then lead to urban sprawl-that is, to disconnected and widespread suburbanisation. This article addresses emergent policy challenges for governments as they respond to the growing propensity for nonmetropolitan and particularly peri-urban relocations that appears to be an outcome of the pandemic. Specific attention is paid to the distribution of employment and need to consider the variegated nature of population and demographic trajectories in nonmetropolitan Australia.

The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on internal migration in Germany: A descriptive analysis

“…The COVID‐19 pandemic has resulted in a rapid increase in working from home (or telecommuting), and has raised questions about the necessity of working in city offices and daily commuting. Among families with a personal preference for a rural lifestyle, the possibility of extensive telecommuting is likely to be translated into the realisation of intentions to move out of cities and into more rural areas (Denham, 2021 ). Hence, the pandemic has the potential to result in a longer‐term trend of redistribution of population from the cities towards smaller, less densely settled places in more rural settings.…”

Residential preferences, telework perceptions, and the intention to telework: insights from the Lisbon Metropolitan Area during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Thus, it weakens the relationship between urban structure and travel (Elldér, 2017 ). As a result, there is a relative consensus that teleworkers tend to have longer commutes (Adobati & Debernardi, 2022 ; de Abreu e Silva & Melo, 2018 ; Denham, 2021 ; Melo & de Abreu e Silva, 2017 ; Mokhtarian et al, 2004 ; Ravalet & Rérat, 2019 ; Wells et al, 2001 ; Zhu, 2012 , 2013 ). A relevant proportion of studies agree that teleworkers tend to reside in suburban areas (Bhuiyan et al, 2020 ; de Abreu e Silva & Melo, 2018 ; Fu et al, 2012 ; Kim et al, 2012 ), or have suburban preferences (Ettema, 2010 ; Tahlyan et al, 2022 ).…”

“…The potential growth of telework is mainly an issue of large cities (Aguilera et al, 2016 ), and mostly owing to the type of jobs with high levels of flexibility and autonomy that could be done from home. These tend to be related to professional and/or managerial occupations (Adobati & Debernardi, 2022 ; Aguilera et al, 2016 ; de Abreu e Silva & Melo, 2018 ; Singh et al, 2013 ), and in knowledge‐intensive economic sectors (Denham, 2021 ). Jobs that could be done at home tend, on average, to pay more than the ones which cannot, and their relative proportion depends on the wealth and economic specialization of each country (Dingel & Neiman, 2020 ).…”

Understanding how policy settings affect developer decisions

“…A second point is that the majority of migration out of the major cities has been to the nearby areas (Regional Australia Institute 2021). This peri-urban population growth has been seen as a likely outcome of increased working from home post-pandemic, due to the need to maintain connections to the cities (Denham 2021).…”

“…While some residents of regional cities, particularly real estate owners and the property industry, will benefit from the impact on housing markets, the difference between metropolitan and regional housing costs that is seen as an attractor to regional cities is being eroded. The evidence of displacement of low-income workers and welfare recipients is also a real concern, indicating processes of gentrification and social displacement as people are forced to leave communities (Denham 2021). For those forced out of our larger regional cities, the only option will be to shift to smaller and more remote areas, where services are even more inaccessible and job prospects further diminished.…”