‘Becoming mainstream’: the professionalisation and corporatisation of digital nomadism

Abstract

Digital nomadism, a mobile lifestyle that encompasses a wide array of professional endeavours, ranging from corporate remote workers to digital entrepreneurs, has benefitted from a steadily growing appeal. Despite this, there is a dearth of research exploring the premises and development of digital nomadism. This paper is concerned with the image of digital nomadism, its underlying structure and practices, and its relation to the current world of work. In order to explore these aspects and problematise digital nomadism, the paper traces the development of digital nomadism and takes inspiration from the Deleuzo‐Guattarian image of the nomad. Adopting a qualitative approach to content analysis, this paper argues that digital nomadism is becoming increasingly institutionalised and professionalised, and, as such, is distant from the emancipatory dimension underlying its discourse and many of its cultural representations. Overall, digital nomadism appears as an extension of capitalist logics, rather than an alternative to them.

Digital Nomads

“…Institutionalisation. While digital nomadism is portrayed as an alternative to mainstream forms of work, it has become increasingly institutionalized, in part due to the business activities of some of the high-profile DNs who realized that they could monetize their experience by focusing on the material and professional needs of less experienced individuals (see Aroles et al 2020). Some high-profile digital nomads help others achieve their own goals through coaching sessions, online courses, training programs, mentoring sessions and 'how-to' guides.…”

Digital Nomadism as a New Flexible Working Approach: Making Tirana the Next European Hotspot for Digital Nomads

“…This type of working modality includes remote working (Felstead and Henseke 2017) and digital nomadism among other subcategories. In many cases, these two concepts are confused and give rise to erroneous impressions (Liu 2020), this is why it is crucial to make a clear distinction between them, and in this regard, digital nomadism is to be considered as a subset of remote working (Aroles et al 2020), and remote working instead is to be considered as a subcategory of flexible working. It is important to highlight that digital nomads are not the only professionals that work remotely; other individuals work remotely too, but there is a difference as the latter move from one place to another only because forced by their superiors or by the nature of their work and tasks.…”

Negócios étnicos e tecnológicos de brasileiros na Estônia: uma comunidade imigrante em formação

“…Na sociedade pós-moderna, ocorre também o fenômeno do nomadismo digital ou nómada digital, que são os indivíduos que aproveitam a tecnologia para realizar tarefas de seu trabalho de forma remota e, pelo fato de não depender de uma base fixa para trabalhar, conduz seu estilo de vida de uma maneira nômade (Schlagwein, 2018). Portanto, também a Estônia se insere nesse novo conceito de comunidades digitais, onde está presente a personalização de conhecimento (Jarrahi et al, 2019), o trabalho digital e o fenômeno do nomadismo de alta tecnologia (Wang et al, 2018) e a profissionalização e corporatização desse mesmo nomadismo digital (Aroles, Granter, Vaujany, 2020).…”