Do Information Technologies (it) Give Wings? Tendencies of the Spatial Relocation of Work (it Verleiht Flugel? Aktuelle Tendenzen Der Raumlichen Verlagerung Von Arbeit)

Results of the company case studies of the EMERGENCE-project ('Estimation and Mapping of Employment Relocation in a Global Economy in the New Communications Environment') show that information and communication technologies without doubt widen the possibilities for the organization of work as well as their spatial distribution. The driving dynamics for certain trends of "winged" restructuring are however to be found in economic considerations of companies and in the controlling interests of management. Our analyses of current processes of a new spatial distribution of work as well as the reorganization of companies allow the conclusion that different logics of restructuring exist next to each other, in which centralization within the framework of international companies is as significant as decentralization and the development of networks