Romanticisation and monetisation of the digital nomad lifestyle: The role played by online narratives in shaping professional identity work

Claudine Bonneau (), Jeremy Aroles () and Claire Estagnasié ()
Additional contact information
Claudine Bonneau: UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal
Jeremy Aroles: USN LLD - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 - UFR Littérature, Linguistique, Didactique - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3
Claire Estagnasié: UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal, UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur, GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur, LabCMO - Laboratoire de communication médiatisée par ordinateur - UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal, CIRST - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie - UdeM - Université de Montréal - UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal, RECOR - Groupe de recherche sur la Communication Organisante

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Some occupations are subject to more complex identity work processes than others. This rings true for those professional endeavours that are relatively poorly known and that cannot rely on institutions as a reference for identification, such as digital nomadism. Digital nomads can broadly be defined as professionals who embrace extreme forms of mobile work to combine their interest in travel with the possibility to work remotely. Building on a two-stage data collection process, this paper proposes a typology that characterises four archetypes of digital nomad lifestyle promoters' narratives found online and show how these online narratives play a role in the process of identity work of other digital nomads. Our contributions are two-fold. First, we show that while the archetypes act as an important online identity regulatory force, they do so through dis-identification. Second, we explain how identity work for digital nomads involves evaluating discursively available subjectivities and propose a three-step reflexive process that entails (i) interpreting, (ii) dis-identifying and (iii) contextualising. We contend that our findings extend beyond the specific case of digital nomads and shed light onto the intricacies of work identity for ‘new' occupations that are romanticised and monetised through social media and beyond.

Keywords: Control; digital nomads; identity work; narratives; online identities; social media; technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-12-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pay
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04450909
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Organization, 2022, 30 (1), pp.65-88. ⟨10.1177/13505084221131638⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-04450909/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04450909

DOI: 10.1177/13505084221131638

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().