Distansarbete : Teknik, retorik och praktik

Sammanfattning: This dissertation, "Telework: technology, rhetoric and practise", deals with the discrepancies between the rhetoric of telework and its practise. Discrepancies are found in three areas. The first is the number of teleworkers, which has never met the expectations and predictions. The second discrepancy is that information and communication technology (ICT) has not become the expected driving force for telework. The third is the idea that telework will make people independent of space and time, which has been realised only partly.To analyse the discrepancies, three empirical fields have been studied: teleworkers living in two Swedish municipalities (Nyköping and Nynäshamn); actors in these two municipalities trying to promote telework; and the history of telework in Sweden from about 1980 to the middle of the 1990s.Teleworkers' experiences indicate that ICT can be both a limitation to and a facilitator of telework. Evidence suggests that ICT is accompanying work into the household rather than 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 multifaceted image of telework. Telework, in its symbolic function, is a indicator of a life style of 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 the teleworker.