Teleworking has transformed our lives since the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to shape the way we work today. Hundreds of millions of workers across the globe now work remotely, the majority of them experiencing entirely new hybrid models—combining some days in the office with others working from home. In just a few years, many advanced economies have reached teleworking rates up to four times higher than those recorded before the pandemic. This rapid expansion has brought both opportunities and challenges, transforming work arrangements while also generating new potential risks and inequalities.
Today, far from the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, this special issue aims to encourage innovative research on remote work by presenting empirical evidence on the following topics:
– Personal Networks: Remote work introduces new dynamics among relatives and colleagues. We welcome analyses examining its impact on processes such as social support, conflicts, forms of control, or interruptions at work.
– Platformization: studies examining online usage dynamics and virtual communities, as well as analyses of platform governance, regulatory frameworks or surveillance mechanisms
– Careers: Studies focused on teleworking trajectories, their evolution over time, and their effects on career progression.
– Productivity: Studies assessing whether teleworkers (fully remote vs hybrid) perform better, worse, or similarly to in-presence workers.
– Gender and parenthood: Investigations into gender inequalities related to access to teleworking, its management within families, and the implications for mothers’ career.
– Occupational health: studies investigating how teleworking conditions influence health outcomes, either positively or negatively, including their effects on occupational risk factors.
– Mobility: studies focusing on mobility and changes in commuting patterns
– Disability: Research exploring whether and how teleworking improves access to employment for people with disabilities or with functional limitations.
– Methodological innovations: innovative approaches, including experiments, longitudinal analyses, and network methods, to better understand the complex dynamics of teleworking.
This special issue will make publicly available data from the project The Empty Office: An International Study of Teleworking, which collected quantitative data from over 4,000 workers in Europe and 28,000 of their personal relations, along with qualitative material from a follow-up study involving 40 teleworkers interviewed one year later.
We particularly encourage researchers interested in this topic to utilize these data—though submissions based on other data sources are also welcome.
We invite contributions from diverse disciplines, including sociology, economics, psychology, public health, and organisational studies, to advance knowledge on the societal and individual implications of remote work.
Submission Schedule
he selection process consists of two stages:
1. Extended Abstracts (September 15, 2025):
Authors should submit an extended abstract (min 1000 words) outlining the key research question, data, methods, and expected findings. Submissions should be sent to mattia.vacchiano@ unige.ch, stephane.cullati@unifr.ch and nicola.cianferoni@seco.admin.ch An initial screening will assess alignment with the special issue’s theme and methodological rigor.
2. Peer Review (mid-2026):
Selected papers will proceed to a double-blind peer review process. Full manuscripts must be submitted by 31 March, 2026.
In preparing their manuscripts, authors are advised to consult the following editorial guidance.
