The major technologies that appeared during the first three quarters of the 20th century had a bearing primarily on physical transport such as the automobile, the aeroplane, etc., while those emerging in the last quarter of the century were almost exclusively concerned with information processing and transmission: computers, cell phones, networks, satellites.
In 1994, in its White Paper entitled "Growth, Competitiveness, Employment: the Challenges and Ways Forward into the 21st Century" [ECV, 94], the European Commission considered that the new information technologies would play a crucial role in developing competition and creating jobs in Europe in the 21st century.
The IT and communications explosion that has occurred over the past 20 years has had an impact on the very fabric of which living in society is composed: relations. Far from being completed, the change is forging strongly ahead and no-one really knows when or where it will stop. Inextricably bound up with the changing technologies as they evolve, it will exceed and surpass these latter in numerous and more fundamental aspects (CAR; 94).
Accompanying this transformation of the industrial society are radical changes headed by metamorphosis in the nature of the dominating production. The industrial society produced objects, the Information Society produces relations (CAR, 94).
The emergence of teleworking belongs within this context and constitutes an innovation that information and communication technologies have made possible in the organisation of work.