The electronic cottage: Myth or near-myth?. A response to Tom Forester

Tom Forester's critique of the 'electronic cottage' thesis pours much-needed cold water on some of the more hot-headed predictions about a shift of employment and services back to the home.¹ But he fails to give due weight to the role of new consumer technologies, which, we can be fairly sure, will be accompanied by social innovation. Given the features of the new products, it is argued here that the major challenges may be felt by collective services such as education and health. We can see much of the shape of technological innovation aimed at consumers. Rather than write off the electronic cottage as a myth, we may do better to seek to establish what social innovations may also be in the offing.