Notes about second homes and teleworking:

comparing Portugal and Norway

Abstract

Portugal and Norway are two contrasting countries, not only in terms of attributes and levels of development, but also in the way they are dealing with the pandemic. Telecommuting, as a reality idealized in the late 1960s and sufficiently evaluated since the 1980s, was a common practice in both countries for a long time, especially in individual intellectual immersion work. To work without leaving the dream home would be a wish, but in Portugal people were asked not to move out of their homes; in Norway they were asked to return from their second homes to their first homes. These were two opposite ways of facing a phenomenon that increasingly marks, largely in a hidden way, the Portuguese landscapes, but in a segmented and clear way, the Norwegian landscapes. In both cases, the future challenge will be to create conditions for people to be able to live and work in their home, be it the first or the second.