Home, university, and other spaces: Where Finnish and Italian academics did research prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic

There is little evidence for the impacts of COVID-19 on the ways in which academics work and their chosen location for conducting research. Given that academic work is highly flexible, this chapter explores whether and how the pandemic has altered the use of different locations for academic research and anticipates future trends. The investigation compares Italy and Finland as two countries with different levels in adopting flexible work and workspaces. A questionnaire was distributed in 2020 and 2021 to investigate changing work practices and the choice of location during the coronavirus outbreak. A total of 523 responses were analyzed (384 in Italy and 139 in Finland). As expected, the results show an evident change in the type of academic work and the spaces used by scholars during this period. However, this also related to the extent to which homes and offices supported their work. The potential future expansion of their work environment to other places was also explored. Recommendations and further research questions for innovative workspaces to meet the needs of academics in these two countries are outlined.