Working from home: Promises, illusions, pathways

About the event

We are pleased to announce our next CTS seminar series and the last in our theme on Labour and Transport.

For an online-only seminar, Dr Benjamin Motte-Baumvol, Senior Researcher at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, will be exploring one of the most significant shifts in the relationship between transport and labour in recent years, with a particular focus on its environmental impacts.

As an introduction to the topic, Benjamin writes:

"Working from home has often been described as a key lever for reducing travel and CO₂ emissions, alleviating urban congestion, and offering greater residential flexibility, especially in large metropolitan areas. It has also been portrayed as a way to reconcile professional and family life - particularly for women - within a largely gendered and neoliberal framework. My research reveals a more nuanced reality: rather than systematically cutting travel distances, working from home frequently increases non-work trips, does not prompt a major shift toward suburban living, and does not meaningfully address inequalities in household task sharing. Yet rejecting working from home outright is not the solution: a detailed analysis of its considerable heterogeneity - by sector, employer strategies, and households’ characteristics—highlights potential levers for steering its outcomes toward a more neutral, or even positive, balance in environmental terms."