Survey on the location of work activities

Where does work take place?

Economists, planners and city managers rely on the assumption that it takes place in offices and other buildings dedicated to economic activity, and in neighbourhoods likewise dedicated to economic activity. However, many people in the laborforce move around and much of their work can now occur in cafés, at home, in restaurants or in co-working spaces: but we still know very little about what types of work activity take place where, and about how workers feel about these new work arrangements.

Richard Shearmur, professor of Urban Planning at McGill, and his student Filipa Pajevic have recently written about this in CityLab. He is currently conducting an exploratory survey that aims to better conceptualise and understand where people's economic activity (including micro-work, such as quickly answering e-mails) occurs and how workers feel about it. You are warmly invited to respond to the survey, and to circulate it amongst colleagues, friends and acquaintances.

Click here to watch the video