London's Global Office Economy: From Clerical Factory to Digital Hub

Londons Global Office Economy: From Clerical Factory to Digital Hub is a comprehensive study of the office from its beginnings to the post-pandemic future, exploring its evolution, role, and impact on the modern economy. It examines the history, design, construction, management, and occupation of offices, using London as a backdrop. The book provides a fascinating and illuminating perspective on the office, linking fields that are normally treated in isolation and appealing to anyone interested in contemporary society and its relationship with work.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 360 pages
Publication date: 08 April 2021
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Londons Global Office Economy: From Clerical Factory to Digital Hub is a comprehensive and timely examination of the office, spanning from its early origins to its post-pandemic future. The book takes readers on a journey through five distinct eras of the office, encompassing sixteenth-century coffee houses and markets, eighteenth-century clerical factories, the emergence of corporate offices in the nineteenth century, and the digital and network offices of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

While offices may seem commonplace, their evolution and significance in the modern economy remain relatively unexplained. A significant portion of the workforce, approximately one-third, operates in offices, yet the buildings themselves, including their history, design, construction, management, and occupation, have received only fragmented explanation, primarily in specialized texts. This book aims to provide a comprehensive exploration of the office economy, examining various aspects such as paper clips, typewriters, design, construction, work styles, and urban planning.

By using London as a focal point, author Rob Harris offers a captivating, enlightening, and comprehensive perspective on the office for built environment practitioners, academics, students, and the general reader. Readers will discover rich interconnections between fields that are typically treated in isolation, weaving together the forces driving change in the businesses that occupy office space with the motivations and actions of those responsible for planning, supplying, and managing it.

Our evolving understanding of offices, the transformations they have undergone, the nature of office work itself, and its ongoing evolution constitute a fascinating narrative that should captivate anyone with an interest in contemporary society and its relationship with work.

Weight: 564g
Dimension: 155 x 234 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367646721