Distansarbete : teknik, retorik och praktik

Sammanfattning: This dissertation, "Telework: technology, rhetoric and practise", deals with the discrepanciesbetween the rhetoric of telework and its practise. Discrepancies are found inthree areas. The first is the number of teleworkers, which has never met the expectationsand predictions. The second discrepancy is that information and communicationtechnology (ICT) has not become the expected driving force for telework. The third is theidea that telework will make people independent of space and time, which has beenrealised only partly.To analyse the discrepancies, three empirical fields have been studied: teleworkersliving in two Swedish municipalities (Nyköping and Nynäshamn); actors in these twomunicipalities trying to promote telework; and the history of telework in Sweden fromabout 1980 to the middle of the 1990s.Teleworkers' experiences indicate that ICT can be both a limitation to and a facilitatorof telework. Evidence suggests that ICT is accompanying work into the household ratherthan pushing it. In addition, to facilitate telework ICT must be reliable and user-friendly,and the teleworker needs familiarity with the technology.The simultaneous analysis of the discourse and practise of telework exposes a multifacetedimage of telework. Telework, in its symbolic function, is a indicator of a life styleof tomorrow and gives symbolic values to the teleworker. In its instrumental function,telework is described in different ideal images, which can give utility values to theteleworker.