The myth of the electronic cottage

An enduring theme in the literature on the impact ofcomputers on society has been the prediction ofa big increase in home-based activities . This article reviews the evidence on participation across a range of home-based activities and discusses why home working, home banking, home shopping and home information services have not taken offas many theorists predicted . Drawing on case studies and personal experiences, the author argues that writers have consistently underestimated the psychological problems ofworking at home, and consumers have by and large notfound new ITbased services to be cheaper, usable or useful nor do theyfulfill their psychological needs . For these and other reasons, he concludes that any increase in home-based activity is like to be gradual and that the vast majority of homes will not become thefocus of new economic activity .

[1]  I. Miles,et al.  The new service economy : the transformation of employment in industrial societies , 1984 .

[2]  Jonathan Gershuny,et al.  After industrial society , 1978 .

[3]  Tom Forester.  High-tech society : the story of the information technology revolution , 1988 .

[4]  Joanne H. Pratt.  Methodological problems in surveying the home-based workforce , 1987 .

[5]  Ian Mackintosh,et al.  Sunrise Europe: The Dynamics of Information Technology , 1986 .

[6]  Ian Miles.  Home Informatics: Information Technology and the Transformation of Everyday Life , 1988 .

[7]  Bernard Cooper,et al.  The House of the Future , 1989 .

[8]  Christopher Freeman,et al.  Unemployment And Technical Innovation , 1982 .

[9]  Jonathan Gershurmy.  AFTER INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY? THE EMERGING SELF SERVICE ECONOMY By Jonathan Gershurmy. Macmillan, London and Basingstoke, 1978, 181 pp., £3.25 (paperback) , 1981 .

[10]  Alladi Venkatesh,et al.  In-home computing and information services : A twenty-year analysis of the technology and its impacts , 1987 .

[11]  Richard Barras.  Information technology and the service revolution , 1985 .

[12]  M. Moss,et al.  The diffusion of new telecommunication technologies , 1985 .

[13]  Luc Soete,et al.  Unemployment and Technical Innovation: A Study of Long Waves and Economic Development , 1982 .

[14]  Margaret Bruce.  IT futures: What current forecasting literature says about the social impact of information technology: John Bessant, Ken Guy, Ian Miles and Howard Rush (editors) £20.00 (London, NEDO, 1985) , 1987 .

[15]  Robert A. Stern,et al.  Computers in Society , 1982 .