Digital nomad lifestyle: a liminal experience of identity transition

Titolo Rivista SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Autori/Curatori Vincenzo Luise
Anno di pubblicazione 2022 Fascicolo 2022/162 Lingua Inglese
Numero pagine 21 P. 208-228 Dimensione file 220 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2022-162010
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

This study contributes to the theoretical perspectives on digital nomad identity. The aim is to go beyond the construction of the nomadic identity framed as identi-ty work in liquid modernity. In doing that, the paper offers an empirical investiga-tion of how knowledge workers construct and perform nomadic subjectivities through liminal work identities in under-institutionalized contexts and symbolic consumption. Drawing on the life history of digital nomads living in Chiang Mai and Bangkok (Thailand), this work concludes that digital nomads know or make the experience that the nomadic lifestyle is not a permanent way of life but a spe-cific stage of their life paths. Digital nomads frame their projects of self-realization through the digital nomad lifestyle as a liminal transition. The digital nomad identi-ty emerges as a temporary and opportunistic assemblage of neoliberal do-it-yourself biographies toward the emergence of a post-nomadic identity. However, the paradoxes and constraints embedded in the digital nomad lifestyle can freeze digital nomads in an objective and subjective permanent liminal condition.

Questo studio investiga i meccanismi e le pratiche di costruzione dell’identità dei nomadi digitali. L’articolo offre un’indagine empirica su come i lavoratori della conoscenza costruiscono e performano soggettività nomadi attraverso identità lavorative liminali e consumi simbolici. L’obiettivo del contributo è di superare l’inquadramento dell’identità nomade come lavoro identitario nella modernità liquida. Dall’esplorazione delle storie di vita dei nomadi digitali che vivono a Chiang Mai e Bangkok (Thailandia), l’autore conclude che i nomadi digitali sanno o fanno l’esperienza che lo stile di vita nomade rappresenta una fase specifica dei loro percorsi di vita e non può essere adottato per molti anni. I loro progetti di auto-realizzazione di vita nomade sono vissuti come una transizione liminale. L’identità del nomade digitale emerge quindi come un assemblaggio temporaneo e opportunistico di biografie neoliberali fai-da-te che consente la sperimentazione e ricomposizione di nuove identità post-nomadi. Tuttavia, i paradossi e i vincoli incorporati nello stile di vita del nomade possono congelare i nomadi digitali in una condizione liminale permanente oggettiva e soggettiva.

Keywords:nomadi digitali, stile di vita nomadico, soggettivazione, liminalità

  1. Appau S., Julie L.O., Klein J.G. (2020). Understanding Difficult Consumer Transitions: The In/Dividual Consumer in Permanent Liminality. Journal of Consumer Research, 47(2): 167-191.
  2. Bandinelli C. (2019). The production of subjectivity in neoliberal culture industries: the case of coworking spaces. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(1): 3-19. DOI: 10.1177/136787791987844
  3. Bardhi F., Eckhardt G.M. (2017). Liquid consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(3): 582-597.
  4. Bardhi F., Eckhardt G.M., Arnould E.J. (2012). Liquid relationship to possessions. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(3): 510-529. DOI: 10.1086/66403
  5. Bauman Z. (2000). Liquid modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  6. Beech N., Gilmore C., Hibbert P., Ybema S. (2016). Identity-in-the-work and musicians’ struggles: the production of self-questioning identity work. Work, employment and society, 30(3): 506-522. DOI: 10.1177/095001701562076
  7. Belk R.W., Costa J.A. (1998). The Mountain Man Myth: A Contemporary Consuming Fantasy. Journal of Consumer Research, 25(3): 218-240. DOI: 10.1086/20953
  8. Benson M., O’Reilly K. (2009). Migration and the search for a better way of life: a critical exploration of lifestyle migration. The sociological review, 57(4): 608-625.
  9. Bidwell M., Briscoe F. (2010). The dynamics of interorganizational careers. Organization Science, 21(5): 1034-1053.
  10. Biehl J. (2005). Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  11. Blackshaw T. (2018). The two rival concepts of devotional leisure: towards an understanding of twenty-first century human creativity and the possibility of freedom. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 1: 75-97.
  12. Cardano M. (2011). La ricerca qualitativa. Bologna: Il Mulino.
  13. Caza B.B., Moss S., Vough H. (2018). From synchronizing to harmonizing: The process of authenticating multiple work identities. Administrative Science Quarterly, 63(4): 703-745. DOI: 10.1177/000183921773397
  14. Clegg S., Baumeler C. (2010). Essai: From iron cages to liquid modernity in organization analysis. Organization studies, 31(12): 1713-1733. DOI: 10.1177/017084061038724
  15. Cody K., Lawlor K. (2011). On the borderline: Exploring liminal consumption and the negotiation of threshold selves. Marketing Theory, 11(2): 207-228. DOI: 10.1177/147059311140322
  16. Cohen S.A., Duncan T., Thulemark M. (2015). Lifestyle mobilities: The crossroads of travel, leisure and migration. Mobilities, 10(1): 155-172. DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2013.82648
  17. Cook D. (2020). The freedom trap: digital nomads and the use of disciplining practices to manage work/leisure boundaries. Information Technology & Tourism, 22: 355-390.
  18. Cresswell T., Martin C. (2012). On turbulence: Entanglements of disorder and order on a Devon beach. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 103(5): 516-529.
  19. D’Andrea A. (2006). Neo‐nomadism: A theory of post‐identitarian mobility in the global age. Mobilities, 1(1): 95-119. DOI: 10.1080/1745010050048914
  20. Fenwick T.J. (2006). Contradictions in portfolio careers: work design and client relations. Career Development International, 11(1): 65-79. DOI: 10.1108/1362043061064238
  21. Garsten C. (1999). Betwixt and between: Temporary employees as liminal subjects in flexible organizations. Organization studies, 20(4): 601-617. DOI: 10.1177/017084069920400
  22. George E., Chattopadhyay P. (2005). One foot in each camp: The dual identification of contract workers. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50(1): 68-99.
  23. Giddens A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  24. Green P. (2020). Disruptions of self, place and mobility: digital nomads in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Mobilities, 15(3): 431-445. DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2020.172325
  25. Ibarra H. (1999). Provisional selves: Experimenting with image and identity in professional adaptation. Administrative science quarterly, 44(4): 764-791. DOI: 10.2307/266705
  26. Ibarra H., Obodaru O. (2016). Betwixt and between identities: Liminal experience in contemporary careers. Research in Organizational Behavior, 36: 47-64.
  27. Ibarra H., Petriglieri J.L. (2010). Identity work and play. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 23(10): 10-25. DOI: 10.1108/0953481101101718
  28. Kaplan C. (1996). Questions of travel: Postmodern discourse of displacement. Durham: Duke University Press.
  29. Korpela M. (2014). Lifestyle of freedom? Individualism and lifestyle migration. In: Benson M., Osbaldiston N., eds, Understanding lifestyle migration: theoretical approaches to migration and the quest for a better life. Bassingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1057/9781137328670_
  30. LeCompte M.D., Schensul J.J. (2012). Analysis and interpretation of ethnographic data: A mixed methods approach (Vol. 5). Lanham: AltaMira Press.
  31. Lury C., Wakeford N., eds (2012). Inventive Methods: The Happening of the Social. London: Routledge.
  32. Makimoto T., Manners D. (1997). Digital nomad. Chichestes: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
  33. Mancinelli F. (2020). Digital nomads: freedom, responsibility and the neoliberal order. Information Technology & Tourism, 22(3): 417-437.
  34. Marcus G.E. (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system: The emergence of multi-sited ethnography. Annual review of anthropology, 24(1): 95-117.
  35. McElroy E. (2020). Digital nomads in siliconising Cluj: Material and allegorical double dispossession. Urban Studies, 57(15): 3078-3094. DOI: 10.1177/004209801984744
  36. Müller A. (2016). The digital nomad: Buzzword or research category?. Transnational Social Review, 6(3): 344-348. DOI: 10.1080/21931674.2016.122993
  37. Noble C.H., Walker B.A. (1997). Exploring the relationships among liminal transitions, symbolic consumption, and the extended self. Psychology & Marketing, 14(1): 29-47.
  38. Nowell L.S., Norris J.M., White D.E., Moules N.J. (2017). Thematic analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. International journal of qualitative methods, 16(1): 1-13. DOI: 10.1177/160940691773384
  39. Ogle J.P., Tyner K.E., Schofield-Tomschin S. (2013). The role of maternity dress consumption in shaping the self and identity during the liminal transition of pregnancy. Journal of Consumer Culture, 13(2): 119-139. DOI: 10.1177/146954051348016
  40. Olga H. (2020). In search of a digital nomad: defining the phenomenon. Information Technology & Tourism, 22: 335-353.
  41. Orel M. (2019). Coworking environments and digital nomadism: balancing work and leisure whilst on the move. World Leisure Journal, 61(3): 215-227. DOI: 10.1080/16078055.2019.163927
  42. Prester J., Cecez-Kecmanovic D., Schlagwein D. (2019). Becoming a digital nomad: Identity emergence in the flow of practice. Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems, Munich, 15-18 December.
  43. Reichenberger I. (2018). Digital nomads–a quest for holistic freedom in work and leisure. Annals of Leisure Research, 21(3): 364-380. DOI: 10.1080/11745398.2017.135809
  44. Rickly-Boyd J.M. (2012). Lifestyle climbing: Toward existential authenticity. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 17(2): 85-104. DOI: 10.1080/14775085.2012.72989
  45. Stebbins R.A. (2007). Serious leisure: A perspective for our time. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
  46. Stebbins R.A. (2018). The sociology of leisure: An estranged child of mainstream sociology. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 1(1): 43-53.
  47. Strauss A., Corbin J.M. (1997). Grounded theory in practice. London: Sage.
  48. Szakolczai A. (2000). Reflexive Historical Sociology. London: Routledge.
  49. Thomassen B. (2014). Liminality and the Modern: Living through the in-Between. London: Routledge.
  50. Thompson B.Y. (2019). The digital nomad lifestyle:(remote) work/leisure balance, privilege, and constructed community. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 2(1-2): 27-42.
  51. Turner V. (1995). The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. New York: Aldine de Gruyter (first edition 1969).
  52. Van Gennep A. (1960). The rites of passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (first edition 1909).
  53. Vinsel A., Brown B.B., Altman I., Foss C. (1980). Privacy regulation, territorial displays, and effectiveness of individual functioning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(6): 1104-1115.
  54. Wang B., Schlagwein D., Cecez-Kecmanovic D., Cahalane M. (2019). Digital nomadism and the market economy: resistance and compliance. Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems, Munich, 15-18 December.
  55. Abidin C., Gwynne J. (2017). Entrepreneurial selves, feminine corporeality and lifestyle blogging in Singapore. Asian Journal of Social Science, 45(4-5): 385-408. DOI: 10.1163/15685314-0450400
  56. Agamben G. (1993). The coming community. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
  57. Ahuja S., Nikolova N., Stewart C. (2020). Identities, digital nomads and liquid modernity. In: Brown A.D., ed, The Oxford Handbook of Identities in Organizations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • “Home office is the here and now.” Digital nomad visa systems and remote work-focused leisure policies José Ignacio Sánchez-Vergara, Marko Orel, Ignasi Capdevila, in World Leisure Journal /2023 pp.236
    DOI: 10.1080/16078055.2023.2165142

Vincenzo Luise, Digital nomad lifestyle: a liminal experience of identity transition in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 162/2022, pp 208-228, DOI: 10.3280/SL2022-162010