Help us find places that already live in the future of work
Digital policy think tank D64 is looking for innovative places and initiatives that help to re-imagine cities, work life and the organisation of labour in the age of hybrid work.
Working from home or a co-working space, four-day working weeks, a labour movement for gig workers or communes re-imagining themselves as places for work and life: what seemed far off only a few years ago is a reality today.
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, many found themselves living in what thought leaders previously only thought of as “the future of work”. Out of necessity, we re-imagined (knowledge) work for the first time since its invention in the 1950s.
And yet, we have not found a new equilibrium, a new way of how work should be organised – and maybe we never will reach such an equilibrium again because work has become increasingly individualised.
Many companies still struggle to find a new balance in the hybrid world of work. Policymakers, too, fear the impact of remote work on their constituencies: will the rise of remote work be the fatal blow to inner cities after retail was replaced by e-commerce? Is public transport still affordable if fewer people commute to work every day? Will social tensions emerge between those you can work from home and those who cannot? And what can be done about all the empty malls and office buildings?
Luckily, some communities, cities and organisations have realised that work has always been a transmission belt for societal change and that the transformation of the world of work can lead to new opportunities – cities like Barcelona and Paris have rediscovered the neighbourhood, the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany lets civil servants work from rural co-working spaces and initiatives like 4 Days Global launched pilot programmes to promote the benefits of a four-day-week.
These are some of the examples that we seek to put together in a map of places that have already arrived in the future of work. With this map, we want to encourage communties, companies and leaders to make work more delightful, to re-imagine space and to provide more meaning and a better work-life balance for people.
Inspiring examples can be found all around the world and we do not pretend to know all of them – which is why we are asking for your help. Do you know a place that stands for a new way of working? Then please share it with us via this form (in German only) or by leaving a comment under this post.
We are not looking for examples of individual companies (simply because there are too many of them) but are open for innovative initiatives from civil society, the public sector or cities. Our map seeks to inspire policy makers and guide them as they shape how we live and work in the near future.
Let’s show them where the future has already begun!