Live, Work, Play: Exploring the Rhetorical Dimension of Remote Work Attraction Incentives Programs

Abstract

Remote Work Attraction Incentives Programs are local economic development tools offering cash or kind payments and financial incentives to remote workers willing to relocate to sponsoring regions or cities. In this research, I analyze the websites of 15 Remote Work Attraction Incentives Programs to understand how U.S. second-tier cities, rural regions, metropolitan areas, and entire states are reshaping their public images in an attempt to rebrand themselves as places for remote workers. The findings show how Remote Work Attraction Incentives Programs counter canonical models for talent attraction by promoting their respective locations as places of production rather than places of consumption and by playing on the contrast between the lifestyles remote workers can afford in the promoted locations and the issues affecting the quality of life in major U.S. cities.