The freedom trap: digital nomads and the use of disciplining practices to manage work/leisure boundaries
- PDF / 1,995,926 Bytes
- 36 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 66 Downloads / 208 Views
The freedom trap: digital nomads and the use of disciplining practices to manage work/leisure boundaries Dave Cook1 Received: 21 October 2019 / Revised: 20 February 2020 / Accepted: 27 February 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The digital nomad idea of freedom is often a generalised and subjective notion of freedom that imagines a lifestyle and future where the tensions between work and leisure melt away. This paper finds that in practice, digital nomadism is not always experienced as autonomous and free but is a way of living that requires high levels of discipline and self-discipline. The research suggests that digital nomads often overlook the role of disciplining practices when first starting out, and do not foresee how working in sites of leisure and tourism might make managing a balance between work and non-work problematic. Longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork examines the extent of these disciplining practices and reveals that they are utilised to keep work and leisure time separate. Keywords Discipline · Time use · Work/leisure boundaries · Neoliberalism · Longitudinal research · Anthropology
1 Introduction The term ‘digital nomad’ is still being defined and this paper does not attempt a full definition. However, journalistic and scholarly sources often define digital nomads as young, work-oriented professionals who reject outwardly imposed structures of traditional office work—such as the 9 to 5—and place value on autonomy, flexibility and the ability to travel and work where they please (e.g. Hart 2015; Spinks 2015; Müller 2016; Reichenberger 2017; Schlagwein 2018a; Thompson 2018a). Sites of tourism that offer lower living costs than cities in the Global North, particularly Chiang Mai in Thailand, Bali in Indonesia and more recently Medellín in Columbia, are the clichéd and most blogged about digital nomad centres (Hart 2015; Spinks 2015). * Dave Cook [email protected] 1
UCL Anthropology, University College London, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
D. Cook
Online resources such as Nomad List (nomadlist.com) rate many more cities and locations across the world and they can even be filtered and ranked based on internet speed, quality of life and cost of living. Services like these offer digital nomads an ever-changing menu of locations and backdrops. A nuanced but important distinction noted by some scholars is that whereas business travellers travel for limited periods of time because of their work, digital nomads attempt to gain freedom by travelling whilst working (Müller 2016, p. 346; Reichenberger 2017, p. 15). This raises interesting questions about the boundaries between generalised concepts of work, leisure and freedom. This research shows that digital nomads attempt to challenge these work/leisure boundaries in the pursuit of freedom, but in doing so face unforeseen challenges. ‘Digital nomad’ is not the only term for this emerging and subjective category of worker. Whilst the term may have both hopeful and derogatory connotations, terms such as ‘locat
Data Loading...
