Work

Remote work and reorganization of household infrastructure in the Global South: insights from the Indian information technology industry

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Remote work scholarship treats work-from-home as individual adaptation, ignoring how households must reorganize to enable it. This individualistic bias proves particularly problematic for understanding Global South experiences where infrastructure deficits amplify household burdens. Examining 51 Indian IT professionals’ transition to remote work, we reveal how households reorganized across spatial, temporal, technical, surveillance, and emotional dimensions. We theorize “household infrastructure reorganization” as collective household labor enabling remote work, “domestication of organizational infrastructure” as cost transfer from organizations to households, and “infrastructural volatility” as chronic uncertainty shaping remote work. These findings challenge remote work scholarship and reveal geographic inequalities in remote work.

Source: Journal of Economic Geography

DOI: 10.1093/jeg/lbaf052

Authors: Vivek Soundararajan, Pankhuri Agarwal, Divya Tyagi

Institution: University of Bath

Language: English

Topic: Work-Family Balance Challenges

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Reduced inequalities, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,638