In the early 1990s, the Leeds-based National Group on Homeworking interviewed 175 homeworkers in 10 UK cities over a two-year period on the advantages and disadvantages of homeworking. The key advantage identified was that homeworking makes it possible to look after children or other dependants in the home, creating the flexibility to combine the two roles. The main disadvantages were ‘low pay’, ‘isolation’ and ‘the mess’ which homeworking creates in the home.

Pieceworkers who work by hand with industrial processes in the home are among the most socially vulnerable and economically exploited groups of workers in the UK. While professional teleworkers get the lion’s share of media and design attention in the current surge of interest around homeworking, the 800,000 manual homeworkers carrying out jobs such as sewing, machining, packing and assembly at home on low rates of pay are largely excluded public debate and from the design process. A high proportion of manual homeworkers are female and from ethnic minorities. Their work is often repetitive, dirty and hazardous; they lack adequate space and facilities; and they cannot afford to purchase suitable furniture and equipment to support their work.

The challenge is to explore ways in which design can have an impact on the working lives of this isolated and marginalised group. Is there any role at all for inclusive design to influence homeworkers caught in a ‘black economy’ trap between regulated employment and the financial independence of self-employment?