Digital Nomadism as an extension of new media
work: Travelling between ideology and practice
University of Amsterdam
MA New Media & Digital Culture Mandy Theel
July 28, 2018
Supervisor: Micheal Stevenson Second Reader: Alberto Cossu
Abstract
In a world where technology intertwines increasingly with everyday life and work, the traditional career fades into the background and work how we know it is transformed. The structural organisation and subjective perception of work are moving towards new notions of freedom and nomadism while new labour forms arise. This thesis is a journey into the world of Digital Nomads, their imagination and implementation of a new kind of work practice. The research aims to examine the changing notion of work in new media industries caused by technological and societal developments. Through the lens of a mixed methods approach using digital methods in a quantitative content analysis and qualitative semi-structured interviews, the study analyses the values and practices of Digital Nomads. The movement of Digital Nomadism will be regarded from a new media perspective where it proves to extend the existing understanding of the new media work practices. The thesis provides a model based on discourse analysis that contrasts the ideology and practice of this work and lifestyle. Moreover, it contributes new insights into the changing notion of work proposing that, especially in the new media industries, work experiences an “industrialisation of nomadism”.
Keywords:
New media, Digital Nomads, new media industries, creative industries, digital methods, discourse analysis, industrialisation of nomadism
Table of content
TABLE OF CONTENT ... II LIST OF FIGURES ... IV
1 WORK IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE ...1
2 EXPLORING NEW MEDIA WORK ...4
MACRO LEVEL:STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE ORGANISATION OF WORK ...5
New Economy and new forms of labour ...5
Freelancing and the business of me ...7
Sociological excursion: Networked individualism and society ...9
MICRO LEVEL:CHANGES IN THE WORKPLACE, ATTITUDES AND VALUES ... 10
Justification for new media work ... 11
New work attitudes ... 11
Hidden costs of new media work ... 12
3 DIGITAL NOMADS AS AN EXTENSION OF THE CHANGING NOTION OF WORK... 14
CLASSIFICATION OF DIGITAL NOMADS ... 15
The rise of Digital Nomadism ... 15
Defining Digital Nomadism ... 15
MACRO LEVEL:LOCATION-INDEPENDENCE FROM AN ORGANISATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ... 17
Nomadic organisation of work ... 17
New art of community ... 18
MICRO LEVEL:VALUES AND EFFECTS OF DIGITAL NOMADISM ... 19
Holistic and ideological approach... 20
Challenges of Digital Nomadism ... 22
4 MIXED METHODS APPROACH ... 24
DIGITAL METHODS ... 25
Scraping Reddit ... 25
Scraping Facebook ... 26
Textual analysis with CorText ... 27
Visualisation with Gephi ... 28
SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS ... 29
DATA ANALYSATION... 30
5 DISCOURSE: COMMUNICATIONS OF DIGITAL NOMADS ... 31
EXCHANGING ON SOCIAL MEDIA ... 31
Destinations ... 33
Finances ... 35
Staying connected ... 36
Health and insurance ... 36
Further topics ... 36
QUALITATIVE SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS ... 37
Definition and motivations... 38
Advantages ... 39
Disadvantages ... 40
Community ... 42
Future ... 42
6 THE IDEOLOGY AND PRACTICE OF DIGITAL NOMADISM ... 43
DIGITAL NOMADISM AS AN EXTENSION OF NEW MEDIA WORK... 43
CONNECTING THE DOTS:INTERPRETATIVE REPERTOIRES MODEL ... 45
The downside of autonomy ... 46
The limits of freedom ... 47
Financial issues ... 48
Daily new experiences ... 49
Constant travelling ... 49
THE IDEALS OF DIGITAL NOMADISM ... 50
THE HIDDEN COSTS OF DIGITAL NOMADISM ... 51
7 CONCLUSION: THE INDUSTRIALISATION OF NOMADISM ... 52
LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH ... 55
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ... 56
8 BIBLIOGRAPHY ... VI 9 APPENDICES ... XI
CORTEXT SETTINGS ...XI
GEPHI SETTINGS ... XIV
TRANSCRIPTS OF THE INTERVIEWS ... XV Transcript Simone ... XV Transcript Niels...XIX Transcript Tara ... XXIII Transcript Renate ... XXIX Transcript Jesse ... XXXV Transcript Gemma ... XLIV
List of figures
Figure 1: Definition Digital Nomads (Reichenberger 8) ...16
Figure 2: Digital Nomad Holism (Reichenberger 10) ...21
Figure 3: Google Images results for [Digital Nomads] ...22
Figure 4: SQL query within the particular Reddit dataset ...26
Figure 5: Subreddit network (link to the network) ...32
Figure 6: Facebook group network (link to the network) ...33
Figure 7: Overview of the participants ...38
Figure 8: Interpretative repertoires model ...46 Figure 9: CorText settings corpus upload ... XI Figure 10: CorText settings "Terms extraction"... XII Figure 11: CorText settings "Network Mapping" ... XIII Figure 12: Gephi settings of the subreddit network ... XIV Figure 13: Gephi settings of the Facebook group network ... XIV
1 Work is not what it used to be
The traditional narrative of “graduate, get a full-time job in a big enterprise, buy a house, have children and retire after a long working-life” is not always appropriate anymore. With the increasing interrelation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) into everyday live and work, the perception, as well as execution of work, is not what it used to be anymore. Not only on the structural and organisational level has “work” undergone major changes, but also regarding the workers’ values, motivations and justifications. While during the late 90s bohemian values revolutionised the professional media world, nowadays, informality is the norm. What is new is the disappearance of the individuals’ territorial ties. In the course of globalisation and deterritorialisation, developments can have several societal as well as political consequences. At the same time, these changes can open up unprecedented possibilities. This causes more liberal and open narratives breaking the predominant standards. For workers in the creative industry, high-profile tech companies at Silicon Valley are therefore no longer the only desirable goal. Rather a high reputation is enjoyed by those living an unconventional, liberating and independent lifestyle with maximum freedom.
In today’s age, ICTs detach the ties between conducting work and the physical workplace and at the same time establish a connection from one place to another. This enables new work methodologies of working from anywhere without the need for a traditional office environment. Furthermore, it challenges our predominant definition of time and space and allows altered as well as new forms of work to be formed. The movement which challenges the traditional forms of work in an extensive way and redefines time and space is called “Digital Nomadism”. Individuals embodying this lifestyle regard the world as their home and conduct their work while travelling from one place to another. Their work titles range from engineers through designers to freelancers, but what they all have in common is their use and reliance on digital infrastructure and new media technologies. These means enable the lifestyle of being location-independent by connecting anyone at anytime from anywhere.
Although it is hard to define any numbers of Digital Nomads, the rise of the trend is undeniable. The search volume for the term [Digital Nomads] has increased constantly in the last years (“Google Trends”), new coworking spaces are appearing all over the world (“Number of Coworking Spaces Worldwide 2005-2017 | Statistic”) and companies offering products and services exclusively for location-independent workers are being founded. Moreover, their utilisation of social media is substantial since there are numerous groups and communities connecting Digital Nomads.
As the idea of Digital Nomadism often consists of lying at the beach and working only four hours a week, as Tim Ferris postulates in his eponymous book, the reality, however, turns out to be different. Digital Nomads are trying to escape the daily-life restrictions and hidden costs as known by the “traditional” new media worker such as precariousness, high risks and uncertainty, however, these can not necessarily be prevented. In fact, Digital Nomadism causes its own challenges and restrictions far from ideology.
The current knowledge about Digital Nomadism is limited due to the fact that this movement as it has emerged in recent years, has not been thoroughly studied. As this new type of worker challenges prevalent notions of work on a structural as well as a subjective level, it needs to be found out how Digital Nomads are positioned within the theories of new media work developments. Therefore, this thesis will contribute to a better understanding by giving insights into the interdependencies of new media work theories and Digital Nomadism. The aim is to explore the substantially changing relationship between work and leisure caused by societal as well as technological alterations. Moreover, this explorative approach will map out the character of this work and lifestyle by going beyond the theoretical consideration with opposing its ideology and practice.
In order to define this research more precisely, the following questions serve as a focus. First,
how do Digital Nomads extend a changing notion of work, especially experienced in new media? Second, how does Digital Nomadism affects the professional and personal practices of its adherents?
These questions are going to be answered in the present research which is structured as follows. In the first chapter, the theoretical framework presents a wider perspective of new media work studies and theories in order to address the research objective in a more profound way. The framework divides into two parts. On the one hand, new media work from a macro perspective to regard its structural transformations and general organisation. On the other hand, the micro perspective serves to point out the actual changes in the workplace as well as the attitudes and values of new media workers.
In the second chapter, the case study of Digital Nomadism will be introduced and again elucidated from both macro and micro perspectives. This section will define Digital Nomadism and present its current state of research. Moreover, the case study will be situated within the academic framework of new media work theories serving as a foundation for the following empirical research.
Chapter three contains the methodology of this study and gives an overview of the conducted steps and methods in order to ensure reliability and validity. This research contains a mixed
method approach using, on the one hand, quantitative content analysis and, on the other hand, qualitative semi-structured interviews. Firstly, digital methods are going to be employed to scrape data from social media communities of Digital Nomads. The gathered data will be analysed with the means of textual content analysis and subsequently examined in a network analysis aiming to outline the communicative content. Secondly, six semi-structured interviews are going to be conducted with Digital Nomads, in order to gain more in-depth and background information about their daily life. By doing this, the outcome of the first method will be integrated into the interviews to induce various perspectives.
In the fourth chapter, the findings are going to be regarded successively. In a first step, the results of the quantitative content analysis will be described using network analysis. In the second step, the results of the qualitative interviews are going to be elucidated and compared. Consequently in the fifth chapter, a discourse analysis combines the outcomes of both methods using interpretative repertoires as introduced by Potter and Wetherell (146). As the objective is to explore the effects of Digital Nomadism, ideology and practice will be elucidated and contrasted with each other in a theoretical model. Furthermore, this chapter will contextualise the empirical analysis with the theoretical framework by outlining the ideals as well as hidden costs of Digital Nomadism.
Finally, the last chapter concludes by summarising the main points and outcomes of this research as well as regarding the case study within a wider context. Moreover, the research questions are going to be answered, the limitations of this research demonstrated as well as recommendations for further research presented.
2 Exploring new media work
This chapter elucidates and discusses the development and characteristics of new media work by reviewing existing literature and academic concepts. Constructing this theoretical framework, new media work will be situated with reference to the research question of how Digital Nomads extend a changing notion of new media work. To better understand how new media work has evolved over time, it is important to introduce and connect various academic concepts and approaches.
New forms of labour arose through developments such as globalisation, new information and communication technologies. As Colbert et al. predicted, “a digital workforce may develop new forms of working that leverage the full capabilities of technology” (736). A number of terms have been evolved to phrase these new approaches of work conducted with the means of new media, including concepts like cultural industries, creative labour, new economy (Castells, The
Rise of the Network Society 148), immaterial labour (Hardt and Negri; Gill and Pratt), reputation
economy (Gandini, The Reputation Economy), knowledge economy (Drucker) and entrepreneurial labour (Neff et al.). Even though these terms are often used interchangeably they are not reducible to each other and will need further definition (Neilson and Rossiter). Nonetheless, their existence indicates the increasing attention and progression in this field. Current research regards new media work as a concept implementing complex structures and developments on both structural and subjective characteristics. The following theoretical analysis uses a more structured approach by implementing two distinct levels: macro and micro. These perspectives can be regarded separated as well as integrated with each other. The structure of the theoretical framework serves to explain the relationships between these two levels and clarify how they mutually define each other and thus new media work can be defined and experienced.
First, the view from a macro perspective helps to explore the structural changes of work on an organisational level. Second, the micro level looks into the developments within the workplace as well as the workers’ attitudes and values. It is important to note that a strict separation in macro and micro levels is not possible in all areas. The perspectives merge and overlap in several aspects, due to the fact that many elements have an impact on a macro as well as a micro level. Nonetheless, both approaches are focused on the main objective and help to develop a theoretical framework to situate Digital Nomadism within the field of new media work.
Macro level: Structural changes in the organisation of work
New Economy and new forms of labour
Beginning in the 1990s, a new form of post-industrial work appeared which was characterized by conditions of precarity and entrepreneurialism as well as the development of labour forms questioning predominant norms. With the rise of the Internet-related firms during the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s, the “New Economy” took shape (Ross, No-Collar 9). It evolved closely linked to developments around post-Fordist capitalism with its growing flexibility as well as the post-industrial focus on information and service (Castells, The Rise of the Network Society 148). Influenced by these economic and social changes the new era of media work identified as New Economy is associated with characteristics as flexibility, independence, risks, project-based work and a wide spectrum of opportunities (Gandini, “Digital Work”; Neff et al.; Ross,
Nice Work If You Can Get It).
The shift from Fordism to a post-Fordist era entailed new forms of immaterial and precarious labour. Immaterial labour, on the one hand, refers to the new capacities in a work environment characterised by information techniques which are often immaterial in form of communication, information or emotions (Hardt and Negri). Precarity, on the other hand, represents the increasing flexibility and insecurity caused by these new work forms (Hardt and Negri; Brophy 620–21). Gill and Pratt define this new workforce as members of “the precarious generation” or more precisely the “new precariat” – which functions as a neologism describing the merging of precariousness and proletariat to represent both: the growing insecurity and, concurrently, new forms of politics (3). The described attributes of the new precariat do not only apply to many new media jobs, they can also be identified with Digital Nomadism as it is touched upon later.
Another development implicated in the New Economy is the spirit of entrepreneurial labour which is accepting the aforementioned characteristics of immaterial labour and precarity by adapting flexibility and risks and translating them into creativity and innovation (Neff et al. 309). This labour force arises particularly in industries using digital technologies such as the new media industries (Gandini, The Reputation Economy 14). The autonomy of self-direction without a restrictive supervisor is one of the most important characteristics for entrepreneurialism and is highly valued by its members (Gill 8–9). Workers in this field are also seen as “the future of work” (Gill 1) or as Gill and Pratt points them out as “poster girls and poster boys of the new ‘precariat’” (2) which move away from a stable career path to a more precarious one. These growing industries around new media and entrepreneurialism are regarded as hot with jobs that are identified with attributes as cool - they are not only highly
skilled and gain a high income, these workers also enjoy a higher prestige than traditional employees or contractors (Neff et al. 309). As Stoppelman, founder of Yelp claims, a few years ago it was “cool” to be part of a big company, but now, where the status is shifting towards entrepreneurialism, “you’re uncool unless you’re a founder of a company” (in Marwick 81). It is not desirable anymore to be safe, because being part of a big company labels one as narrow-minded and “tied down to someone else’s dream” (Marwick 81). As a result, workers tend to accept the risks involved with entrepreneurial labour leading to a “normalization of risks” that can also serve as a model for other flexible employment relations as introduced in the following paragraphs (Neff et al. 307).
The trend towards higher flexibility and insecurity occurring in the post-industrial economy leads to further forms of non-standard employment outside of the 9-to-5 contract that are shaped by information and communication technologies (ICTs). The post-Fordist progression with a focus on individualism and personalisation has already begun with what Castells indicated as “flex-timers” who strive for a more independent life that is not only about work (The Rise of the Network Society 281). He predicted that “the traditional forms of work, based on full-time employment, clear-cut occupational assignments, and a career progression over a lifetime is being slowly but surely eroded away” (290). These traditional forms are being replaced by new work types adapting ICTs within their work life and focusing increasingly on individuality.
With the intervention of new forms of technology in humans’ everyday life and work, transformations allow for decentralisation and real-time communication without the need of face-to-face interaction (282). These prevalent ICTs reshape the nature and organisation of work while creating new forms as telecommuting or remote work. The technological development towards ICTs’ involvement in the workplace permits workers to work remotely and stay at home or at any place outside an office to conduct their work tasks (Nicklin et al.). What started as exceptions evolved into new work patterns and became an ongoing trend. According to a survey from 2015, 34 percent of business leaders predict that half of their workforce will telecommute by 2020 (Vanderkam). This trend comes with important benefits on both employees’ and employers’ sides. Workers conducting their work in a remote manner enjoy a high level of flexibility and autonomy which can result in a greater job satisfaction. Telecommuters are also less likely to experience a high level of stress and work-family conflicts (Nicklin et al. 47). From the employer’s perspective, remote work is attractive because it has been shown that it increases the worker’s productivity while lowering the expenses for real estate or management (Martin and MacDonnell). Nonetheless, telecommuting does not come without disadvantages. Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer terminated the remote work option of her employees in 2013 since it stated that the collaboration and innovation suffered from the lack
of face-to-face interactions (Tkaczyk). However, transformations in the work organisation caused by developments such as ICTs are leading to new forms of work that exploit implicit capabilities while causing attributes of precariousness.
Freelancing and the business of me
The precarity and entrepreneurialism of new forms of media work are epitomized in freelancing as well as what Gandini calls the “reputation economy” and emphasises attributes such as networking and self-promotion. A work transformation resulting from the rise of ICTs as well as a general trend towards more project-based work organisation is the freelance economy. As a high percentage of Digital Nomads are working as freelancers, it is important to outline the concept and characteristics of the freelance economy.
A freelancer is typically self-employed and works for a variety of customers in several professions (Gandini, “Digital Work” 124). The decision to work on a freelance basis is often voluntary but, in some cases, it happens out of compulsion when there is, for instance, no chance for a full-time employment (Neff et al. 319). The freelancing workforce is characterised as “on-demand economy” with workers available “on tab” where companies as Uber and Elance-o-Desk be considered as formative in this trend (“There’s an App for That”). However, the recruitment process also has changed due to the freelance economy since the companies’ radius for potential employees extends to nearly the whole world. Where Silicon Valley was once considered to be the centre of the new economy (Castells, The Rise of the Network
Society 288), a global potential labour pool is now available. Platforms for digital work and
freelancing for instance “Upwork.com” or “Freelancer.com” make it possible that a start-up in London can hire a freelancer from Bangladesh for their website’s creation. Consequently, this allows workers to conduct their jobs without being at the job’s location and “physically proximate to the object of labor” (Graham and Anwar 2). With a stable internet connection, digital work can be done from everywhere and by everyone with the appropriate knowledge and resources. As Graham and Anwar put it, “[w]e have a mass migration of labor without the migration of workers” (2).
Since Freelancers do not have a fixed office desk, they rely on an appropriate working space with a stable internet connection. Their home, cafés or, for some time, coworking spaces (Gandini, The Reputation Economy 100) often serve this purpose. These new work environments popped up enormously in the last ten years. One area where this is seen is the rising number of 75 coworking spaces in 2007 up to 13.800 ten years later (“Number of Coworking Spaces Worldwide 2005-2017 | Statistic”). Coworking spaces not only serve as a place with a desk, socket and internet connection, they are also used as a place for network
are ”the most efficient option for the reorganisation of their dispersed, individualised, fragmented and venturial labour” (Gandini, The Reputation Economy 100). While networking and interaction are mainly based on knowledge exchange, coworking spaces can be regarded as a form of collaborative community, where trust between strangers is elaborated on the basis of shared values and knowledge exchange (Adler and Heckscher 41). Coworking spaces play an important role in this theoretical framework because they are not only a popular workplace of Digital Nomads, they also embody an environment for the exercise of a communitarian feeling.
Similar to the collaborative community, knowledge as a central good can also be seen in what Moravec coined as “knowmadism”. Based on Drucker’s understanding of a knowledge society, the trend of “knowmadism” took shape. In a knowledge society, individuals take the central position since they embody the main good: knowledge (Drucker 210). What arose is a borderless workforce, called “knowmads” aiming for the creation of meaningful outcomes where the idea of a career is not important anymore. Instead, the collection of activities with a personal purpose that can apply in different contexts is of particular importance (Moravec 79). The concept of knowmadism is to some extent reminiscent of Digital Nomads. This is not only because of the parallels in the term but also because knowledge is a central attribute of Digital Nomads. Nevertheless, they are not synonyms to each other because of their differences in the implementation and location of work.
Workers conducting their job in a freelance way are especially reliant on a strong network and a good reputation since the majority of jobs are not assigned through vacancies. Rather workers are seen as businesses themselves. Thus, self-branding and promotion are crucial since social relationships are the main source for the job hunting procedure (Gandini, “Digital Work” 124). A survey released on the professional platform LinkedIn claims that 85 percent of jobs are filled through a sort of networking practice (Adler). Especially in the new and freelance economy, people think of themselves as the “CEO of Me Inc.” where the constant promotion of the self and an expansion of one’s network is required (Gershon 2).
Networking is closely linked to the status of a person, which is an attribute with a high importance in the new media world (Marwick). Hence, a particular status indicates and provides a higher reputation for the professional. What Gandini claims as “reputation society” arises out of the fact that reputation is seen as a type of capital which is valued and increasingly visible as well as tangible through social media activity (Gandini, The Reputation Economy 38). The increased need for self-branding behaves as an investment in the workers’ network and reputation. It functions as a form of marketing of the self through a combination of networking and the organisation of social relationships. This links the attribute of self-branding
with what sociologists understand as “social capital” (Gandini, “Digital Work” 124). According to that, Bourdieu defines social capital as “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition” (248). Therefore, social capital refers to the power arising from positioning oneself within a social network or group as well as the members’ support for one’s instrumental benefits in a mutual way. In the reputation society, social capital serves as a contribution to the reputation of a worker and reveals in the usage of their surrounded community.
Sociological excursion: Networked individualism and society
To expand onto the sociological perspective, I will deepen the excursus with what Castells coined as “networked individualism”. Networked individuals use the Internet or more precisely ICTs to act as members of several globally widespread groups with diverse approaches. This individualism enables the use of a particular group for different purposes for instance emotional support or knowledge exchange (Castells, The Internet Galaxy 132). Popularised by sociologist Barry Wellman, the concept of networked individualism is an extension of networks as “little boxes”. With the rise of ICTs, networks move away from the “little box” metaphor where people are members of distinct and structured groups and one interaction is executed in its place. Today’s social interaction no longer fits in this outdated social model of networks. The sense of “community and domesticity have moved from hierarchically arranged, densely knit, bounded groups (‘little boxes’) to social networks” (Wellman 10). Today, people are not any more members of one single group: instead they flit between different groups due to the more permeable boundaries and linkages between their personal networks. What happens because of new communication technologies, that provide internet access from anywhere, is a shift from place-to-place to person-to-person connectivity. Connections are now made between people instead of places which moves the “work and community ties from linking people-in-places to linking people wherever they are” (15).
Building on this, Castells introduced the concept of the network society to refer to the sociological changes through ICTs which lead to decentralised networks rather than hierarchical groupings. As people are less dependent on concepts such as place and time, new entities without any geographical attachment arise. The overcoming of the constraints of time where habitual time sequences are blurred is termed as “timeless time”. Similarly, new communication technologies reorganise the conception of space. This new space is not a placeless one but it is not related to a fixed place anymore since space is local and global at the same time. Therefore, mobile communication redefines the meaning of place as individualised relations within a specific network assimilating the flows of communication.
Castells believes that the network society leads to a globalised, connected and open-minded society. As he states:
This is not the fading away of time, but the emergence of chosen time, and of compressed time, to fit the multitasking of communication. This is not the end of distance, but the definition of interaction in a space of communication flows structured around spatial nodes of opportunity. And this is not the confusion of all social practices, but the constitution of a set of practices around the interests, values, and priorities of each individual. (Castells, Mobile Communication
and Society 174)
From an employers’ perspective, this creates new opportunities since a company is not dependent on their local labour market anymore. Since distance mostly does not have any impact on the rapidity and performance of digital work, geographical restrictions become insignificant. Opportunities such as outsourcing and the potential to select from a global labour pool establish new possibilities for both workers and businesses and confirm again Graham and Anwar’s “migration of labour” (Graham and Anwar 2). This shift towards a more individual and globally composition of networks reasoned by ICTs as well as the global recruiting indicates characteristics associated with a digital and nomadic worker.
Summarising, the macro perspective presents an historical-organisational approach to understand the transformation of work through new media technologies. Arising from post-industrial and post-Fordist thinking, the new economy embodies increasing individualism, flexibility and precarity. In this context, ICTs reshape the way of work and introduce new forms as freelancing or remote work. Furthermore, the definitions of time and place have been transformed into borderless and global notions, which create new sociological concepts as networked individualism and society. This macro-level builds the basis for the coming exploration of Digital Nomads. In the following chapter, the transformations in the workplace, as well as the workers’ attitudes and values, are reflected upon at a micro level to further grasp the object of Digital Nomads.
Micro level: Changes in the workplace, attitudes and values
The structural and organisational changes of work have a great impact on the appearance of the workplace as well as the workers’ values and norms. To consider this development within the workplace and its impact on the workers, this research will build on different approaches and theories.
Justification for new media work
The attributes workers use to justify their job have changed over the past decades and resulted in a transformed spirit of capitalism as Max Weber coined in the beginning of the last century. The researchers Boltanski and Chiapello provide a proficient framework with their research about the “new” spirit of capitalism. Using French management texts from the past decades, the sociologists compare the changes in the justifications of managers in regard to their position. It results in a temporal change over the years and shows a significant restructuring in the prevailed system of value (162). According to Boltanski and Chiapello, the “spirit of capitalism”, as coined by Max Weber, stands for “the ideology that justifies people’s commitment to capitalism” (162), thus, what makes it attractive for its members. Their analysis reveals the dimensions “excitement”, “security” and “fairness” as expressions of the spirit of capitalism. Therefore, after World War II, managers justify their work in being part of a hierarchical system, follow and give orders as well as observing a high level of loyalty. All in regard to the higher aim to satisfy the commodity requirements of the community’s members (Boltanski and Chiapello; Fligstein 584). However, the new spirit of capitalism supports the idea of work that provides individual value for the manager.
Boltanski and Chiapello create for this altered form of organisation a new justificatory category entitled “projective Cité” (categorisation within the justificatory regime model developed by Boltanski and Thévenot). Due to the fact that work is increasingly organised around projects, the continuous involvement in a sort of activity, never being without a project, is significant while networking is one of the main sources for projects and activity. Additionally, risks play a big role in this Cité, but can result in an expanding network and new possibilities while repetition is being avoided (169). This shift is mainly caused by the drivers of this change as inequalities, selfishness and the urge for individualism, and on an artistic level, “massification of society, standardisation, and pervasive commodification” (162) are responsible. Subsequently, Boltanski and Chiapello provide a theory of the development of the networked individual within the work environment, who focuses on the organisation around projects and networks that are flat and flexible and require a high level of commitment (162). Thus, the new spirit of capitalism is most useful for those who embody a high level of flexibility, sociality and mobility and are able to act polyvalent (Boltanski and Chiapello 169; Fligstein 585), all characteristics applicable to Digital Nomads.
New work attitudes
Micro-level changes in the workplace not only transform the motivations of workers, they also modify the work attitudes and mentality in a more informal, humane and bohemian one. After
became a focal point of employees’ interest (Ross, No-Collar 6). What developed is a more “humane” workplace that did not serve to overcome the workers’ dissatisfied attitude but rather to positively contribute to the general output. This new work culture embodies more self-direction, open communication and new forms of independence (9-10). What first started with “Casual Fridays” in the Wall Streets offices to make workers express their personality and feel at home at work (Ross, “No-Collar Labour in America’s ‘New Economy’” 77), spread throughout the whole new media landscape and established a new mentality called “no-collar”. The members of this movement were labelled with no-collar because of their general rejection of labels and their focus on individuality and independence, where “nonconformity was its earnest emblem” (Ross, No-Collar 10). Different to blue- and white-collar work styles, the no-collar workers practise a more bohemian style of work and life, which comes with undesirable costs. This phenomenon of work derived from the programmer and information technology is termed by Ross as “industrialisation of bohemian” (10). In this work environment, employees experience a lot of self-management which revealed in a high degree of control over their work methods, time and organisation. As Ross explored in his research at New York’s Silicon Alley, the physical work environment also experienced major changes towards humanity. This is exemplified in the office which was used as a “multi-purpose playroom” equipped with foosball and pool tables as well as relaxing areas (Ross, ‘No-Collar Labour in America’s “New Economy”’ 77). Within this process of assimilating the counterculture of capitalism, bohemia became industrialised especially in the new media work environment. Nevertheless, the liberation of bureaucratic structures within this new humane workplace do not come without any restrictions as it is revealed in the following section.
Hidden costs of new media work
The transformations in the workers’ justification and new attitudes come with undesirable costs. The high level of flexibility, the informality and the bohemian way of life are only part of the story. As already touched upon in the first part of this theoretical framework, new media work is also characterised through factors as precarity, a high level of self-investment as well as long hours while earning low salaries. Especially workers in the freelance economy, are exposed to high risks, constant job-hunting and the fear of becoming disabled and having no benefits such as insurance or old-age provision (Gill 9). Neff et al. call this phenomenon as the “normalization of risks” (331) which new media workers incorporate in their work routine. Another significant key feature of new media work is the workers’ imbalance between workload and payment as spatial and temporal boundaries of work erode. The prevailing competition results in pressure and makes workers accept contracts that are low paid (Gill 10). While earning a low salary, the required working hours are long and range between 60 up to 80 hours
per week (Gill 11). The working time is not only limited to the office, work is also carried out in private spaces as on the train, at home or during vacation. This “extensification of work” (Jarvis and Pratt) indicates the blurring boundaries between work and leisure experienced in the new media work environment.
The predominant informality offers a high level of freedom, independence and flexibility with characteristics as table tennis matches during the lunch break and after-work drinks on Fridays. These informal and casual conditions involve new and different requirements: a high level of commitment and the permanent demand to extend one’s network. As Neff et al. phrase it, the “[b]lurred lines between work and play pressure workers to participate in ‘non-corporate’ culture even if they do not enjoy it, or have to put in extra time” (Neff et al. 321). At the same time, networking does not only mean to socialise at events after work, it is also expected to be active on social media and use social networks to gain new work opportunities and projects (321). Thus, every interaction is an opportunity for work and requires a constant self-promotion which you can never shut down. For example, leisure activities as a dinner with friends, a birthday celebration or a wedding are an opportunity to expand one’s personal network (Gill 20). For the new media workers an “outside of work” does not exist because their whole “life is a pitch” (1) and the next job can be found everywhere.
The demands on the workers are high as they need to keep up with the current developments, latest technologies and constantly retrain themselves. For example, if someone works as a web designer they always need to be up-to-date and retrain their skills additional to the already long working hours (Gill 12). Workers see themselves as businesses that are expected to be a jack-of-all-trades, must constantly retrain and enhance one’s skills, relationships and experiences (Gershon 2)
.
Many of the costs a new media worker has to pay are not promising in terms of their future. Scholars predict “foreshortened careers” (Neff et al. 325) and “an inability to project ahead into the future in a realistic or meaningful way” (Gill 17). The cycles of work are short and a high fluctuation rate is ordinary since start-ups are constantly popping up and disappearing. (Neff et al. 326). The precarious characteristic of digital labour reflected in its progress leads to the constant fear of what to do next and leads to a high uncertainty regarding prospective developments. In short, the desirable attributes of new media work such as freedom, informality and flexibility require particular costs that cast a shadow on these jobs.
After regarding the development of new media work from both, macro as well as micro perspective, the basis of this research’s theoretical framework is built. The first part of the theoretical analysis provides the classification of new media work on an organisational level
such as individualism, flexibility and precarity. In a world of the new economy, where work can be done by anyone, from anywhere and at any time, the traditional framework of work needs a transformation and adjustment. As the analysis on a micro level showed, many modifications have already taken place. The changes in the managers’ justification for their work evolved towards the new spirit of capitalism. It is characterised by high individual value and expressed through the projective Cité where work is increasingly organised around projects and networks. Here, the greatest benefit is enjoyed by those who are particularly social, mobile and adaptable to this new way of work and life. Furthermore, digital work arguably causes a development towards a more humane workplace, where the no-collar attitude replaces the traditional norms of white-collar workers. These developments cause hidden costs and new requirements of the workers. New media workers need to be flexible, willing to work long hours without gaining a high salary, always up-to-date, retrain themselves and network constantly in order not to miss any opportunity. They must accept that there is no outside of work and always give their best while living in a precarious, insecure and ever-changing working life. Building on this understanding, the objective of Digital Nomads will be situated within the field of new media work theories in the following section. Based on existing research, this new work and lifestyle will be regarded theoretically again on a macro as well as micro level.
3 Digital Nomads as an extension of the changing notion of
work
While the preceding analysis of the evolvements around new media work showed a number of similarities to the characteristics of Digital Nomads, this chapter will provide a deeper insight into the objective of Digital Nomads. More specifically, the following section will show why the trend is relevant as an extension of the changing notion of work. Based on the presented theories of new media work, the movement of Digital Nomads will be regarded through the lens of the theoretical framework on macro and micro level. The following section will introduce the case study and further attempts to demonstrate first, how Colbert et al.’s suggestions of a new digital workforce utilising the full capabilities of technology is represented by Digital Nomads and second, how Digital Nomads are thus an extension of new media work.
As ICTs enable communication and work without any temporal or spatial restrictions, they function as the main resource, a kind of lifeline, for Digital Nomads. Mobile communication means connect them with their intertwined personal, social and professional network. New work forms as remote work and freelancing can be discovered in Digital Nomadism as well as the involved mentalities and characteristics. The members of this trend embody an extended notion of freedom, flexibility and autonomy while struggling with old and new pressures and
restraints. In short, Digital Nomads bring new media work on both, a new macro as well as micro level as will be elaborated in the following section.
Classification of Digital Nomads
Before immersing into the macro and micro perspectives of Digital Nomadism, it is essential to classify and define this trend beforehand. The coming section will provide important key figures and definition to demonstrate its importance and specification.
The rise of Digital Nomadism
When looking at Google Trends, it can be seen that the searches for Digital Nomads increased constantly in the last five years (“Google Trends”). Especially in countries like New Zealand, Thailand and the Netherlands Digital Nomads experience a rising attention. Levels, a successful Digital Nomad himself and founder of Nomad List, predicts that in the year 2035 approximately 1 billion people will live as Digital Nomads. He justifies his prognoses with the rise of freelancing, cheaper and faster internet as well as air travel and the decrease of marriages and ownership (Levels).
Furthermore, their influence throughout several social media platforms is significant as Digital Nomads are highly active on the Internet and always connected. For example, the Facebook group “Digital nomads around the world” consists of more than 76,000 members with new ones joining every day. The Instagram hashtag #digitalnomad has been used in more than 1,400,000 posts, Digital Nomads on Twitter have a high number of followers (e.g. @levelsio) and on the platform Reddit, Digital Nomads connect via subreddits as for example the subreddit “digitalnomad” with more than 142,000 readers (all as of 15 April 2018). However, it is hard to measure how many Digital Nomads are existing and travelling around the world at the moment, but it is obvious that the number of Digital Nomads is rising and the initial trend of leaving one’s home for working remotely while travelling is becoming increasingly mainstream.
Defining Digital Nomadism
As hard as it is to count Digital Nomads and determine their dimensions, equally, it not easy to specify the actual Digital Nomad and establish a universal definition. Nonetheless, online magazines and newspapers are filled with definitions of Digital Nomads, for example Spinks claims them as “borderless, mostly self-employed remote workers who interact with cities in a way that’s entirely different from a tourist, but still doesn’t quite reach the status of a resident”. Bennion is more specific in his characterisation and divides the term into “digital” that “refers
to the use of technology” that provides Digital Nomads with a platform to work and “nomad”, which is a synonym for travelling. Furthermore, many definitions also relate to the origin of the term derived from Makimoto and Manners book Digital nomad published in 1997. It is uncertain if the researchers coined the phrase but they definitely had a great impact on its evolvement. From an academic perspective, there are just a few approaches to define Digital Nomadism. Mark and Su specify the nomadic worker as “derived from the term nomad, a member of a community who travels from place to pace with a purposeful goal” (312), in the case of nomadic workers, the goal is to conduct work. Reichenberger tries to provide a classification of Digital Nomads by dividing four different types. As it can be seen in Figure 1, Level 0 only categorise the basics of Digital Nomads as they are location-independent by conducting work online. Individuals enter the Digital Nomad state on the Level 1 while transferring this independence to a type of mobility as for example their home environment. Level 2 is going one step further by including occasional travel while still having a fixed home and the most extreme type of Level 3 requires full-time travelling without an actual home base (Reichenberger 8).
Figure 1: Definition Digital Nomads (Reichenberger 8)
A survey conducted by the Harvard Professor Beth Altringer provides additional insights into the characteristics of Digital Nomads. According to their respondents, most of them are going to places with low living costs, for example North America, Western Europe and Southeast Asia. The majority (75 percent) is self-employed or owns a small business, working as a consultant or are a service provider in media, tech, finance, sales or coaching. Age-wise nearly half (42 percent) are in their thirties and 34 percent are younger millennials. Digital Nomads are making around 1,000 dollars a month, which seems quite low but due to the fact of the most low-cost locations, they can live a good standard. Nevertheless, Altringer found that Digital Nomads save 17 percent less when they are on the road and spend nearly their entire salary on travel, food and hobbies. Another extensive survey concentrated even more on the demographics of Digital Nomads and discovered that the majority is male (64 percent) and in a relationship (55 percent), are most likely programmers (22 percent), marketers (8 percent)
or designers (8 percent), and 36 percent are conducting their work on a freelance basis. While the majority lives in five to ten countries per year (32 percent), Digital Nomads are typically staying one to three months in each place (44 percent) and return to a fixed home base regularly (Elwes).
Macro level: Location-independence from an organisational
perspective
On a macro level, Digital Nomads challenge the existing notions of work by choosing a lifestyle that secedes from the prevalent norms and exploits ICTs at all levels. In today’s world, where people are neither physical nor mentally firmly attached to their homeland anymore, the constant interconnection leads to a progressive globalisation. Thereby, cultural globalisation enables also the transmission of ideas, values and cultures around the world (James 20). Already in the early 70s, Deleuze and Guattari introduced the phenomenon of “deterritorialisation” in their book Anti-Oedipus: capitalism and schizophrenia referring to the separation of cultural, social and political practices from their native territories. In times of ICTs and high interconnectedness, deterritorialisation becomes increasingly prevalent as these technologies connect globally and consequently create a globally networked society including everyone having access. Dissolving territories can be seen in several areas as, for instance, in the globalisation of the labour market and the changing notion of work towards more freedom, working stages are being outsourced as well as workers hired from a global labour pool and, thus, removed from their initial territory. At the same time, deterritorialisation can be controversial as observed on a political level, where refugee crises divide up politics.
In relation to nomadism, Deleuze and Guattari define the nomad not as without territory but rather as “strictly subordinated to the paths they determine, the reverse of what happens with the sedentary” (Deleuze and Guattari, A thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia 380). Therefore, the nomad deterritorialises constantly by following certain paths. As Digital Nomads free themselves from their initial territories and at the same time identify as global citizens, they serve as an appropriate case study in order to obtain insights about the implementations and consequences of the proceeding deterretorialisation.
Nomadic organisation of work
As declared in the theoretical framework, the notion of work is changing and creates new forms of labour enabled through new technologies as ICTs and wireless communication. The provision of these technological infrastructures allows conducting work online without the architecture of a company. Significant changes in the physical organisation of work appear in
new forms as freelancing, telecommuting or working remotely. Digital Nomadism can, thus, be regarded as a new combination and transformation of these forms of work since most Digital Nomads are working remotely and many of them on a freelance basis.
Digital Nomads are adding the aspect of almost constant travelling as a new form of value. The increased mobility of these new labour form transforms work in “something you do, not a place where you go” (Deleuze and Guattari 380). In what Makimoto and Manners call “digitized without-walls-world”, some workers are fully separated from any constraints and regard the Internet as their “primary” home (Gruber and Consalvo in Rosenwald). Hence, workers do not need to be located where work and information are, but rather work and information is digitalised and not tied to a physical location anymore. The necessary resources can be transferred to where the workers want to be (Dal Fiore et al. 97). The development towards the individual, strengthen the introduced value system of the knowledge economy, where individuals and their knowledge are the main good. The engendered knowmads can be regarded as a precursor of what we understand as Digital Nomads, however, knowmads do not show anything of the nomadic characteristics as the usage of the extreme mobility. Derived from Weiser’s “ubiquitous computing” where computers were seamlessly integrated into humans’ lives (Weiser), a new form of computing is described by Kleinrock namely “nomadic computing”. It refers to a new paradigm which provides the use of computer and communication technologies while travelling independent of a location. Lyytinen and Yoo elaborated nomadic computing with introducing the “nomadic information environment” as “a heterogeneous assemblage of interconnected […] elements that enable the physical and social mobility of computing and communication services between organizational actors both within and across organizational borders” (377). Within a nomadic information environment, the user has access to information on every device and in every network. This type of environment integrates increasingly and seamlessly into humans’ everyday lives. We can anticipate that in a few years, every public space and transportation provide wireless connection and serves as a possible office (Elgan). Similarly, the lines between the use of mobile media for work and leisure are blurring, and simultaneously, create new “techno-spaces” in which Digital Nomads use public spaces for work purposes by making use of technologies (O’Brien 1).
New art of community
Coworking spaces offer a physical manifestation of these techno-spaces by providing a place to engage and interact socially. Furthermore, these work spheres not only enable inspiration and collaboration, they also offer a new nature of community where social interaction and mutual support is beneficial for all its members (O’Brien 6). As introduced before, coworking
spaces can also be regarded as a form of collaborative community that enables interaction and confidence building between quasi-strangers based on shared values and knowledge exchange (Adler and Heckscher 41). In regard to Digital Nomads, this new art of community provides them with both friendship and business opportunities. Based on Castell’s networked individualism, Digital Nomads can also be seen as a form of networked individuals since they use particular groups for different purposes. The purposes are diverse as the “Digital Nomad community” is used for different intentions which can be for instance emotional support as well as knowledge exchange. Their connections to their family and friends “at home” are allocated to purposes such as emotional support and backing. These blurring boundaries between personal and professional networks confirm the assumption of the formation of complex social networks where network individualism is central. A recent study by Schlegelmilch et al. discovered that Digital Nomads use their community to connect and engage with “like-minded others” to establish a level of identification and support (14). Often, these “sub communities” emerge online on platforms as for example in Facebook groups (16). The importance of a network or a community for Digital Nomads can also be seen in the evolvement of new means supporting this notion of community. As for example, Roam functions as a new form of coworking and coliving space with a large focus on the community aspect (“Coliving & Coworking | Roam”).
The analysis of Digital Nomads from a macro perspective showed that due to the fact that new technologies enable to work without being tied to a physical location, Digital Nomads take advantage of this in an extensive way. The means of nomadic computing integrate mobile technology in humans’ everyday lives and across borders. By creating techno-spaces, new environments as coworking spaces adjust to the needs of Digital Nomads with providing not only a physical place to work but also a new form community with whom they can identify on a personal as well as professional level. As a result, the hypothesis has been confirmed and Digital Nomads can be regarded as an extension of the changing notion of work on a structural macro-level.
Micro level: Values and effects of Digital Nomadism
Shifting to a micro-level, Digital Nomads embody new attitudes and values for their particular lifestyle, which comes with costs. As analysed in the previous consideration from a micro perspective, workers have specific justifications for their commitment to their relative economic system. Based on Boltanski and Chiapello’s justification model and the new work mentalities with its hidden costs, the following section will examine the motivations and justifications of Digital Nomads for their life- and work-style. The approach takes place on a theoretical level,
Workers’ justifications such as excitement, security and fairness have undergone changes and created new values that imply a project-oriented Cité. In this projective Cité, work is focused on networks and organised around projects. Consequently, the new spirit of capitalism is most useful for individuals who are adaptable, flexible and who is able to act polyvalent. The individual should be active, autonomous, take risks, open up to people and possibilities while avoiding repetition (Boltanski and Chiapello 169) – practically a description tailor-made for Digital Nomads. It can be argued that they fully embody the new spirit of capitalism and can be regarded as an extended form of what Boltanski and Chiapello already predicted of the new managers.
As experienced in Ross’ no-collar workforce, self-management is a crucial rule of organisation where employees enjoy nearly maximum control. Digital Nomads enlarge this extent of freedom and self-management to the maximum by exempting themselves from all limitations. The characteristic of independence in work and life is highly valued and one of the key features of the nature of Digital Nomads. It is shown in their autonomy over work and temporal structures as well as the affordances of hypermobility and location-independence (Schlegelmilch et al. 10). Furthermore, on account of the increased time flexibility, some Digital Nomads experience a better work-life-balance which concurrently leads to a higher productivity (Mark and Su 312). The positive impacts in a Digital Nomads’ life are significant: the extreme level of freedom and self-management can result in an increased creativity and productivity providing advantages for both, worker and company.
Holistic and ideological approach
To approach Digital Nomads’ freedom more detailed, the “Digital Nomad Holism”-model provided by Digital Nomadism researcher Reichenberger will serve to grasp this freedom on a professional, spatial and personal level.
Figure 2: Digital Nomad Holism (Reichenberger 10)
As it can be seen in Figure 2, the different types of freedom are inseparably connected and require each other fulfil Digital Nomad Holism. A right and balanced combination of professional, spatial and personal freedom can lead to the desired outcome of Digital Nomad Holism. This model firstly highlights the intertwining between work (professional freedom) and leisure (personal freedom). Secondly, it shows how location independence (spatial freedom) increase the control over work in a positive manner through the stimulation of autonomy and creativity and lastly, improve leisure through new experiences and exposures gained by travelling.
Not only does the individual’s freedom rise when living in a nomadic manner, the person’s status also improves. Hence, travelling can be an indicator of status – the more places you visit, the higher your reputation. Therefore, “it’s no longer about who you know but rather, where you know” (Lamarque). Likewise, the technology scene develops towards an ethos of visible consumption as for instance experiences and travel (Marwick 73). It seems to be coming true, how Gandini already predicted, that there is a “rise of a new social class” revolving around precarity and freelancing (Gandini, “Digital Work” 124). The new social class seems to be embodied in Digital Nomads who have nearly maximal freedom and autonomy while enjoying a high status.
To get a better idea of the ideology and the expectations of Digital Nomadism, it is particularly interesting to explore the Google Images results for [Digital Nomads] and see how the trend appears.
Figure 3: Google Images results for [Digital Nomads]
Figure 3 shows that the Digital Nomads on the pictures generally sit at the beach, lie in a hammock or do both. They seem relaxed and satisfied and are not showing any negative attributes. Some Digital Nomads even appear in a group or a coworking environment. These results suggest a high informality leading to a further and sharper industrialisation of bohemia evolving from what Ross’ calls “industrialization of bohemia”. The pictures propose a new ideology of working at the beach, being surrounded by like-minded people without having any limitations or sorrows but instead enjoy the maximised freedom and autonomy on all levels.
Challenges of Digital Nomadism
While most articles about Digital Nomadism only focus on how great it is to skip everything and start travelling the world, it is not the whole truth. The sudden increase of freedom resulting in a high degree of self-management comes with a just as high level of responsibility. Digital Nomads are in charge of managing their own work in all ways while traditional office workers mostly rely on stable resources (Mark and Su 313). Thereby, they are highly reliant on the technological infrastructures and constantly need to find a suitable place to work which is not overcrowded and provides a stable internet connection (Wasserman, Spinks). Moreover, O’Brien predicts that Wi-Fi is the “lifeline” of Digital Nomads and the “main artery” of a coworking space (7).
As shown by the Digital Nomad Holism model, the provided freedom blurs the boundaries between work and leisure. What was already considered as a cost of the “traditional” new media worker, is experienced even more by Digital Nomads. Due to the lack of regular working
hours and places, the danger of inappropriately mixing work and play increases (Chen and Nath 57). As Manson puts it in his Blogpost about the “dark sides of the Digital Nomad”, interactions are always a blur of intentions. He claims, “[t]he line between business networking and friendship is non-existent, as the handfuls of people on the planet who can relate to your lifestyle also happen to be possible joint venture partners and/or clients“ (Manson). Boundaries between the different areas of life disappear and the Digital Nomads’ life can be seen as a spatial and temporal mixture of work and leisure.
Furthermore, being at a place where others are on holiday, can make it hard to focus on the execution of work tasks instead of exploring the surroundings or lie at the beach around the corner. Even if there is enough motivation, disruptions and interruptions can decrease the productivity (Chen and Nath 57). Here, coworking spaces might contain the distractions and help to support and motivate mutually.
Another drawback of Digital Nomadism is the lack of social interaction. Unlike an office environment, the interaction with locals, coworkers or any other people can be comparatively low and can even lead to a sense of isolation. As Manson phrases it, “the price of the overwhelming freedom is often my isolation”. Even if connections are made, the friendships are often of a loose and superficial nature which makes it more difficult to be integrated into a community (Franks 10).
In summary, the framework developed for new media work on micro and macro level in the first section was applied to the object of Digital Nomads in the second theoretical part. The already experienced development towards a more flexible, autonomous and precarious work- and lifestyle are taken to a new level by Digital Nomads. As defined for this research, Digital Nomads are individuals who are location-independent and conduct their work through the means of ICTs while travelling. They represent values as freedom, independence and autonomy on an extreme level while embodying a new kind of community. Nevertheless, they need to pay certain costs as, amongst other things, a high need self-management, blurring boundaries and a lack of social interaction. Returning to Colbert et al.’s prediction of a new workforce making comprehensive use of technology, it can be deduced that Digital Nomads embody this new workforce in their way of work and life. Finally, the assumption can be confirmed and Digital Nomads can be regarded as an extended form of new media workers who use digital means in an extensive way to conduct their work and life location-independent while experiencing new benefits and struggling with new pressures and restraints.
4 Mixed methods approach
As Digital Nomads can be understood on a macro- as well as on a micro-level, the thesis will propose a two-fold approach using mixed methods to explore the case study of Digital Nomads in an explorative and sequential way. The intent of this mixed methods study is to understand determinants surrounding the phenomenon of Digital Nomads, on the one hand on the basis of its structural characteristics and, on the other hand, on its subjective values. In the study, quantitative content analysis using digital methods will be used to understand the organisational implementations of Digital Nomadism. At the same time, it will be explored more profoundly using qualitative interviews in order to get insights of the individuals’ motivations and experiences (Creswell, Research Design 123).
The approach of mixed methods uses a combination of two methods to build upon their particular strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Thereby, two perspectives can be drawn: one from the closed-ended more general data (quantitative) as well as from the open-ended more personal data (qualitative) (Creswell, A Concise Introduction to Mixed Methods Research 15). Furthermore, the design of the method is exploratory sequential, which means that the data is collected consecutively and thereby allows to build one data collection on the results from the other (Klassen et al. 379). In this research, information from the first quantitative data collection will be explored further in the second qualitative part. First, the use of digital methods in form of a quantitative content analysis will help to gain insights into the relevant issues and information exchanged by participants. Second, in-depth interviews with Digital Nomads serve to understand particular perspectives and gain in-depth information. Additionally, these interviews will be used to probe significant aspects of the quantitative research by exploring perspectives of Digital Nomadism. In this step, results of the quantitative analysis will be actively integrated into the qualitative interviews to explore and explain in more depth the correlations of the quantitative results. Lastly, the results of the two methods are being related to each other by using a discourse-analytical approach to outline the relationship between ideology and practise of Digital Nomadism.
The case study will be analysed by drawing from the theories and concepts introduced in the previous chapter in order to further understand (1) how Digital Nomads extend a changing notion of work in new media and (2) how Digital Nomadism affects the professional and personal practices of its participants. As the theoretical introduction of the case study already examined the research questions in a theoretical manner, the next part approaches Digital Nomads on a more explorative level. The following chapter will outline the steps that have been taken to conduct the methodological approach of this research in order to gain a deeper understanding of Digital Nomadism.
