 Labour mobility and mobile workers: new implications for rural revitalisation?Gary Bosworth, Janet Merkel and Jason Whalley Chapter 19 in Handbook of Labour Mobility, 2026, pp 324-340 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: The urban–rural shift in manufacturing and the residential location hypothesis, each proposed in the early 1980s, identified processes of economic decentralisation at the firm level. Despite decentralisation, the balance of economic power remained strongly with urban regions, whose economies shifted to higher value services and knowledge-based industries. In this chapter, we explore the new decentralisation of remote workers and ask whether this might lead to a rural economic renaissance, or whether it too will simply diffuse the influence of urban economic systems into rural areas. We draw on recent literature and empirical research on coworking spaces across Europe to understand the types of work being conducted in rural areas and the growth of remote and hybrid working. A typology of remote working is developed to assess the embeddedness of remote workers in their local economy and in digital networks, to understand more about the nature of local multiplier effects. Keywords: Coworking; Rural Economy; Remote Working; Digitalisation; Rural Development (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:23274_19 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.