Digital Nomadism & Other Research
On this page you will find my latest research and studies about Digital Nomadism, a lifestyle that allows people to work remotely and live in different locations around the world.
ABDC Award for Innovation & Excellence in Research
Judges Comments:
The panel recommends this project in the established, scholarly category because the applicant has demonstrated global leadership and international collaboration in digital nomadism research.
Research excellence was shown in the quality of research publications, including through third-party literature reviews.
The research employs an innovative approach in pooling qualitative data, fostering multi-institutional research collaboration.
There is also strong evidence of research impact in advising governments, organisations and communities about the policy, business and social impacts of digital nomadism.
Beyond the Factory Paradigm: Digital Nomadism and the Digital Future(s) of Knowledge Work Post-COVID-19
Abstract: What are the potential futures of knowledge work, given its transformation into almost exclusively digital work during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis? Our ongoing research program on digital nomadism informs a Hegelian dialectical analysis and an envisioning of the future(s) of knowledge work. We contrast the Factory paradigm of work (thesis), exemplified by the “ideal type” of the 9- to-5 corporate worker, with the Hypermobility paradigm of work (antithesis), exemplified by the ideal type of the digital nomad. Reflecting on this contrast, we envision the possible digital futures of knowledge work as a continuous spectrum, ranging from a future based on the Digital Taylorism paradigm of work to a future based on the Worker Autonomy paradigm of work.
These futures are discussed in terms of different approaches to organizing work, working with technology, delineating work/life boundaries, and provisioning the social safety net. IS researchers are uniquely positioned to perform research and inform decision-making in all these areas, and thus make a difference in determining whether the future we end up with more closely resembles Digital Taylorism or the Worker Autonomy vision.
Toward a Theory of Identity Performance in Unsettled Digital Work: The Becoming of ‘Digital Nomads’
Abstract: The advent of ‘digital’ ways of working and organising is unequivocally transforming the very fabric of work, leading to an increasingly uncertain, unsettled, and fluid environment. Research has traditionally anchored worker identity in fixed and place-bound concepts. However, in the digital workplace, where work is more akin to a performance, unfolding over time, and processual in nature, our understanding of work and theories of worker identity are called into question. In this paper, we ask the question: how is digital worker identity performed in such fluid and unsettled work settings? To explain digital worker identity performance, we investigate digital nomadism as an extremely fluid and unsettled case of digital work.
We study digital nomads, high-skilled professionals who use digital technologies to work remotely and lead a nomadic lifestyle, in a multi-sited ethnographic field study. Based on a process-relational perspective, we are theorising how the identity of digital nomads, their “becoming”, is performed as an ongoing process along lines of identity performance. This is an intermediate “product of theorising”, in accord with the aim of the special issue, but provides a foundation for a novel process-relational theory of identity performance in unsettled digital work.
Digital Nomadism as a New Part of the Visitor Economy: The Case of the “Digital Nomad Capital” Chiang Mai, Thailand
Abstract: The advent of ‘digital’ ways of working and organising is unequivocally transforming the very fabric of work, leading to an increasingly uncertain, unsettled, and fluid environment. Research has traditionally anchored worker identity in fixed and place-bound concepts. However, in the digital workplace, where work is more akin to a performance, unfolding over time, and processual in nature, our understanding of work and theories of worker identity are called into question. In this paper, we ask the question: how is digital worker identity performed in such fluid and unsettled work settings? To explain digital worker identity performance, we investigate digital nomadism as an extremely fluid and unsettled case of digital work.
We study digital nomads, high-skilled professionals who use digital technologies to work remotely and lead a nomadic lifestyle, in a multi-sited ethnographic field study. Based on a process-relational perspective, we are theorising how the identity of digital nomads, their “becoming”, is performed as an ongoing process along lines of identity performance. This is an intermediate “product of theorising”, in accord with the aim of the special issue, but provides a foundation for a novel process-relational theory of identity performance in unsettled digital work.