‘Emancipation’ in Digital Nomadism vs in the Nation-State: A Comparative Analysis of Idealtypes

Blair Wang (), Daniel Schlagwein (), Dubravka Cecez-Kecmanovic () and Michael C. Cahalane ()
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Blair Wang: Lero, University of Galway
Daniel Schlagwein: The University of Sydney Business School, Australia
Dubravka Cecez-Kecmanovic: UNSW Sydney Business School
Michael C. Cahalane: UNSW Sydney Business School

Journal of Business Ethics, 2025, vol. 198, issue 1, No 3, 35-68

Abstract: Abstract Academic and public debate is continuing about whether digital nomadism, a new Internet-enabled phenomenon in which digital workers adopt a neo-nomadic global lifestyle, represents ‘real’ emancipation for knowledge workers—or if it is, instead, the opposite. Based on a field study of digital nomadism, and accepting a pluralist approach to emancipation, we analyse the ‘emancipatory project(s)’ that digital nomads engage in. This analysis, following Weberian idealtypes, employs a tripartite structure: unsatisfactory conditions (what people want to overcome); emancipatory means (actions taken); and emancipatory ends (desired outcomes). We critically compare digital nomadism to the traditional descriptions of emancipatory projects in nation-state contexts, as found in prior literature, using the same analytical framework. Juxtaposing these idealtypes, we discuss similarities and differences and analyse their inherent assumptions, logics and ethical stances. We conclude that digital nomadism generates an emancipation that is very much ‘real’ for digital nomads, whose experience cannot be disregarded, but with a ‘postmodern’ ethos that is at odds with modernity and its ethos originating from the Enlightenment.

Keywords: Digital work; Digital nomadism; Future of work; Emancipation; Emancipatory projects; Ethics; Critical theory; Idealtypes; Post-nation-state; Field study; Qualitative research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-024-05699-8

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