From Work to Life and back again: Examining the digitally-mediated work/life practices of a group of knowledge workers

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study exploring the technologically-mediated practices of work/life balancing, blurring and boundary-setting of a cohort of professionals in knowledge-intensive roles in Sheffield, a regional city in Northern England. It contributes to a growing body of CSCW research on the complex interweaving of work and non-work tasks, demands and on the boundaries that can be supported or hindered by digital technologies. In the paper, we detail how a cohort of 26 professionals in knowledge-intensive roles devise diverse strategies for handling work and non-work in light of a set of interconnected forces, and we argue that boundary dissolving and work-life blurring, and not just boundary setting and “balancing”, are essential resources within such strategies. We also show how boundary sculpting pertains not only to work pervading personal spheres of life, but also the opposite, and that establishing, softening and dissolving boundaries are practiced to handle situations when the personal seeps into professional life

Provocations from #vanlife: Investigating Life and Work in a Community Extensively Using Technology Not Designed for Them

Research on how lived experiences with technology intersect with home and work are core themes within HCI. Prior work has primarily focused on conventional life and work in Western countries. However, the unconventional is becoming conventional—several rising subcultures are coming into prominence due to socio-economic pressures, aided by social media. One example—#vanlife—is now practised by an estimated three million people in North America. #vanlife combines travel, home, and work by their occupants (vanlifers) living full-time in cargo vans that they usually convert themselves into living spaces. We present a portrait of vanlifers’ current technology practices gleaned through ~200 hours of fieldwork and interviews. Following a thematic analysis of our data, we identified unique opportunities for integrating technology across culture, design, homesteading, offline organization, and gaming. We have distilled these opportunities into eleven provocations to inspire critical design and informed inquiry for technological interventions for #vanlife.Funder 1, NSERC Discovery Grant 2016-04422 || Funder 2, NSERC Discovery Accelerator Grant 492970-2016 || Funder 3, NSERC CREATE Saskatchewan-Waterloo Games User Research (SWaGUR) Grant 479724-2016 || Funder 4, Ontario Early Researcher Award ER15-11-18

Understanding Corporate Social Responsibility and the Case of Small and Medium Enterprises in a Kazakh Context

ABSTRACT The proposed case study seeks to acquire empirical evidence on the evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the context of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Kazakhstan. This research draws upon primary sources, including in-depth interviews of general managers of Kazakhstani SMEs along with professionals in the field of CSR in Kazakhstan, and a survey of SME customers. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Kazakhstani business culture has been exposed to rapid changes, which affected almost every aspect of social interactions from political and institutional architecture to common cultural references and social norms. Simultaneously, transformations in business and economic relations at the global level have produced a growth in discourse on CSR, particularly in developing countries. These systemic changes and international developments prompted this research to explore what constitutes CSR in the case of SMEs in Kazakhstan? Without a consideration of contextual features, it becomes difficult to understand how and why phenomena such as CSR may or may not be adapted and incorporated into the local Kazakhstani business in the same way as in countries with established free economy markets. Findings from this research challenge the prevailing belief that local CSR is newly born phenomenon, which was merely brought to Kazakhstan from outside. Instead, this study demonstrates a considerable discrepancy between the Western conceptualisations and the local CSR realities. Contrary to popular assumptions, the notion of social responsibility has a unique and sustained history in Kazakhstan. This study examined the effect of local cultural and historical circumstances in shaping the development, conceptualisation, and adoption of CSR in Kazakhstani SMEs. To do so, this research 1) explored the “local roots” of Kazakstani CSR and analysed the determinants of its unique form, 2) identified the main recipients of SMEs’ CSR, whose concerns are prioritised, 3) unfolded the driving forces compelling local companies to adopt CSR practices

Digital nomads : The rising workforce of the digital era

Digital nomadism is a phenomenon growing in popularity, especially among the younger generation of knowledge workers. Digital nomads are digital workers who enjoy freedom and global mobility. Due to the nature of their work, they can live and work from anywhere in the world. This is made possible by technological advances and favourable global economic conditions. Digital nomads are prime examples of people and workers who take advantage of the technological advances and innovative digital possibilities. In the increasingly dynamic and global business world, the demand for other types of workers than traditional employees is rising. Digital nomads are a modern type of workforce that companies can leverage to their advantage. This thesis is conducted by literature review about the current academic knowledge about digital nomadism coupled with empirical research, in which five Finnish digital nomads were interviewed. The aim of this research is to construct a more thorough understanding of the digital nomadism phenomenon. This thesis aims to answer the questions of why people are increasingly working as digital nomads, what motivates them, how do they operate and run their businesses, and what kind of challenges and risks are there in digital nomadism. As a result, it is found in this thesis that digital nomads are motivated by the desire for freedom and new experiences, increased flexibility regarding the time and place of work, utilizing the value of their work by advancing their own businesses, and an independent lifestyle as an alternative to traditional employment. Digital nomads are passionate about what they do, they are able to manage themselves and sell their services to potential clients. They are digitally skilled people, and their business relies heavily on digital solutions. For organizations, hiring a digital nomad can often be a more cost-efficient way than hiring a permanent employee, especially for project-like assignments. As a dynamic type of lifestyle, there are naturally challenges as well in digital nomadism. The work is highly uncertain and insecure, digital nomads are solely responsible for running their businesses and delivering their services, they need to tolerate constant risk and a lonely working environment and maintain a favourable work-life balance.Digital nomads, vapaasti suomennettuna diginomadit, ovat paikkariippumattomasti töitä tekeviä ja digitaalisia ratkaisuja käyttäviä henkilöitä. Tämä tutkielma on rajattu yrittäjinä toimiviin diginomadeihin. Diginomadina työskentely on ilmiö, joka on kasvattanut suosiotaan etenkin nuoremman sukupolven asiantuntijatyötä tekevien ihmisten keskuudessa. Diginomadit nauttivat työssään vapaudesta ja globaalista liikkuvuudesta. Digitaalisen työn luonteen vuoksi, he voivat elää ja työskennellä missä tahansa omista preferensseistään riippuen. Tämä on mahdollista teknologisen kehityksen ja suotuisan globaalin markkinatilanteen myötä. Diginomadit ovat erinomainen esimerkki työtä tekevistä ihmisistä, jotka käyttävät edukseen teknologista kehitystä ja digitaalisten innovaatioiden suomia mahdollisuuksia. Nopeasti muuttuvassa, dynaamisessa ja globaalissa liike-elämässä kysyntä muunlaisellekin työvoimalle, kuin perinteiselle vakituiselle palkkatyölle, on kasvavaa. Diginomadit ovat vaihtoehtoinen työvoima, jota yritykset voivat käyttää edukseen. Tämä tutkielma koostuu kirjallisuuskatsauksesta sekä empiirisestä tutkimuksesta, johon on haastateltu viittä suomalaista diginomadia. Tutkielman tavoite on luoda syvempi ymmärrys diginomadeista. Erityiset kiinnostuksen kohteet tutkielmassa ovat syyt, miksi ihmiset enenevissä määrin työskentelvät diginomadeina, mikä heitä motivoi, kuinka he toimivat ja edistävät liiketoimintaansa ja millaisia haasteita diginomadien elämässä on. Tutkielman tuloksena voidaan todeta, että diginomadeja motivoi erityisesti vapauden ja uusien kokemusten halu, lisääntynyt joustavuus koskien työn aikaa ja paikkaa, mahdollisuudet hyödyntää oman työnsä arvoa edistämällä omaa liiketoimintaa ja itsenäinen elämäntyyli vaihtoehtona perinteiselle palkkatyölle. Diginomadit ovat intohimoisia työtään kohtaan, kykenevät hallitsemaan omaa työtään ja myymään palveluitaan potentiaalisille asiakkaille. He ovat digitaalisesti lahjakkaita ja heidän toimintansa nojaa vahvasti digitaalisiin ratkaisuihin. Yrityksille diginomadilta työn tilaaminen voi olla kustannustehokkaampi ratkaisu kuin vakituisen työntekijän palkkaaminen erityisesti projektiluontoisiin tehtäviin. Diginomadit kohtaavat työelämässään myös haasteita. Heidän työtilanteensa on epävarma ja turvaton, he ovat yksin vastuussa liiketoiminnastaan ja tarvittavien töiden tekemisestä, heidän tulee kyetä sietämään riskejä ja yksinäisyyttä sekä ylläpitämään suotuisaa työn ja vapaa-ajan tasapainoa

A qualitative case study of UK university academics’ collaborative practices: a social-psychological perspective

This thesis analyses the social-psychological processes in the journey of the collaborative practices of 12 British University academics working at a university located in south-east England (henceforth, SEE University). This study stresses the importance of what happens behind the scenes of collaboration. It endeavours to explore (i) the values and qualities of the partners with whom the participants collaborate; (ii) the spaces and disciplines wherein these collaborations take place; and (iii) their motives for choosing to engage in collaboration. To achieve the aims of the study and address the research questions, a qualitative case study methodology was used. The data were collected through a series of semi-structured face-to-face and online interviews before and during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings reveal that the participants seem to focus more on three main social-psychological processes shaping their collaboration journey rather than only the outcomes produced, and that their feelings and behaviours appear to determine the quality of their collaboration. Therefore, understanding the three core elements in the journey of collaboration – ‘who’, ‘where’ and ‘why’ – prior to initiating collaboration appears to be necessary. That is, this research strives to supply the missing piece of the collaboration puzzle. Regarding the ‘who’, findings show that it is important for participants to choose the right academic collaborative spouses with whom they can collaborate effectively. As for the ‘where’, the data demonstrate that participants cross two types of boundaries when collaborating. These are ‘spatial’ and ‘disciplinary’. The ‘why’ findings describe the motives triggering participants to collaborate. These are ‘expressive’ and ‘instrumental’. However, participants’ accounts show that the ‘who’ seems to outweigh both the ‘where’ and ‘why’. The originality of the study lies in that the latter takes a novel approach to exploring how the participants collaborate – social psychology, wherein the focus is on how academic Selves and Others influence one another’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours when collaborating. This thesis, therefore, attempts to produce a reaction to the collaboration that the participants build to gain a deeper understanding of what occurs in the journey of producing intangible as well as tangible outcomes. Contribution-wise, all my participants and I co-developed a flexible 3W model (Who, Where, and Why) that future researchers can apply when studying collaboration or similar social or academic phenomena. In light of the research findings, there are implications at two levels – theoretical and practical implications. Implications at the theoretical level concern the new social- psychological insights that the findings can add to the concepts that were used to make sense of the data, namely, Social Capital (SC), Human Capital (HC), Communities of Practice (CoPs), and Oldenburg’ Concept of First, Second and Third Place. Implications at the practical level are related to implications of the findings on academics to consider when engaging in collaboration. These implications have to do with the significance of ‘understanding the social psychology of collaboration’, ‘personality compatibility in collaboration’, ‘nomadicity’, ‘university financial support for international collaboration’, ‘implications of Covid-19 on collaboration’, and ‘balancing expressive and instrumental collaboration’. Overall, the findings of the study can be used to help academics reframe and rethink collaboration at tertiary level and raise their awareness about the significance of the ‘right’ academics with whom they should collaborate, ‘where’ they need to collaborate, and, most importantly, ‘why’ they choose to collaborate

Motility and Relational Mobility of the Baka in North-Eastern Gabon

This thesis offers a first scientific portrait of the Baka in North-Eastern Gabon, a group of post-foragers living along the River Ivindo, and the way they practice and conceptualise mobility. The inquiry encompasses the long-term historical and the daily or short-term current mobility of this group, elicited through life histories and participant observation. The central premise of this work is that mobility is relational. Relational refers to interaction of movement and fixity, of position and outcome, and to the understanding of mobility as socially produced. The second concept employed is that of motility, the capacity or potential to be mobile. As motility analyses what comes before observable movement, of potential and actualised outcome as mobility or immobility, it takes up the idea of mobility as relational. The Baka living on the Ivindo migrated from Cameroon and Congo into Gabon over the last approximately 60 years. In contrast to established approaches to forest forager mobility, which focus mainly on resource mobility during an annual cycle, this study considers the long-term and larger geographical perspective and shows that the quality of personal relations between Baka and their neighbours is decisive in mobility considerations. Previously these relations were characterised as a structural opposition between two ethnic groups. This analysis demonstrates the heterogeneity of people and their interactions, in the past and the present, to argue, firstly, that relations are more appropriately conceptualised as multilateral, and, secondly, that an inquiry remains incomplete without considering affections and emotions. A principal mobility factor for the Baka is the search for a good life, meaning economic improvement and freedom from violence. This search coincides with a diversification of Baka livelihoods to include subsistence practices as well as working in the gold sites of Gabon. Employing motility shows the aspirations and limitations of Baka personal and group mobility in gold work. Motility is also understood as ‘mobility capital’ and thereby helps document social change, and how gold work is undertaken with reference to Baka egalitarian social organisation to be successful. By including group and individual as well as different temporalities in the analysis, and detailing the impact of social values on mobilities, motility gives depth to the analysis of mobility

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationTransgressing norms and barriers of mundane digital spaces to seize spotlight in the name of social change is breathtaking. Such are modern-day protest groups as they utilize a special mix of skills, tactics, and resourcefulness to become forces of disruptive tensions in the spectacular seas of image-whirls, sound-waves, and incredible storyscapes in which we live. "Femen and Assemblage Politics of Protest in the Age of Social Media" examines these disruptive tensions as created by the topless female activist group Femen. Specifically, I am interested in how human and nonhuman elements in Femen activism create lasting impressions in the fleeting everyday life of the millions of internet-connected individuals around the globe. I conceptualize these processes under the name of media-activism assemblage and illustrate the work of Femen protest politics through three different case studies. In Chapters 2, 3, and 4, we see the dynamics of the Kiev 2012 cutting down of the crucifix by Femen

Old age, caring policies and governmentality

Through the theoretical lens of Foucault’s archaeological method, this thesis undertakes a discourse analysis to examine how old age and ageing are strategically positioned as forms of governmentality in New Labour social care policy documents. It is argued that these discourses are not directed purely at the older generation, but at everyone, at all stages of life, encompassing all aspects of everyday living. Old age thus becomes a strategy of governing the population through individual everyday lives. This hints at the way ageing is prefigured, anticipated and lived in advance. An analytical method is developed by weaving together Foucault’s notions of archaeology and governmentality; the latter is utilised both as an analytical perspective and to provide an understanding of how people primarily act and interact in contemporary Western societies. This analytical perspective is initially applied to an exploration of how the form and function of social policy enable ordinary practices of life to become targets of political government, making both possible and desirable the government of everyday living: governing how we ought to live in every aspect of life from work and finances to health, to personal relationships and leisure activities. The thesis progresses to explore this in more detail through a practical application of governmentality and focused discourse analysis of eight New Labour social care policy texts. The aim of the analysis is to explore what subjectivities and forms of life are possible within these discourses and therefore what these policies actually do, as distinguished from what they claim to be doing. It is argued that the discourses that emerge in these policies act to limit and subjectify, by attempting to contain and stabilise the multitude of possibilities for practices of living. By ostensibly aiming to create social inclusion the policies make possible vast areas of exclusion that become prime spaces of government. Thus many ways of living, ageing, and being old become untenable due to their inherent contradiction with the social values and rationalities upon which these discourses are based. Whilst governmentality analyses have been brought to many other policy areas, this thesis makes an original contribution by: developing a governmental analysis of social policy as a form of biopolitics; by applying this analysis to the social care field; and by using policy discourses of old age and ageing to draw out significant aspects of a governmental society. In particular it explores the dispersion of many traditional boundaries, leading to the rearrangement of relations, responsibilities and subjectivities

Challenging Hostel User Typologies: Motivations and Mobilities in Norway

In current academic literature hostels have frequently been identified as the primary mode of accommodation for young budget travellers, most notably in the form of backpackers. Although typically identified as a rite de passage for many middle-class Westerners, a need to challenge contemporary backpacker typologies was identified as potential travellers from Eastern Europe, Russia, China and Southeast Asia had become increasingly mobilised. Research has focused predominantly outside of Europe and has centred mainly in three regions – India, Southeast Asia, and Australasia. This geographically ‘Eastern-centric’ research orientation has thus created a regional-based definition which has been used to describe a global phenomenon. Moreover, these typologies have also neglected the motivations of travellers from non-conventional demographic backgrounds and have frequently overlooked those visiting destinations which are deemed unconventional or non-exotic. Backpacker motivations have become heavily stereotyped and rigid, yet many academics have persisted in romanticising their behavioural performances, frequently portraying their journeys as highly mobile, fluid sojourns which are built upon strong desires to attain new cultural experiences and to immerse oneself into the unknown. Building upon the research of Hannam and Ateljevic (2007), Edensor (2007) and Muzaini (2006), this thesis challenges many fundamental definitions and explores the notion that many backpackers may indeed search for the banal as opposed to maintaining its avoidance. Moreover, the role of mobility, which has been neglected from a significant proportion of academic literature on backpackers, is critically observed in order to assess its significance and validity in the overall 6 experience of backpacking-orientated vacations. While backpackers are frequently identified as highly mobile travellers, the thesis critically examines this notion and suggests that many may be far less mobile than originally perceived. A multi-method qualitative study was developed and undertaken between April 2008 and September, 2009 which details the accounts and experiences of 59 interviewees and additionally documents the findings from several participant observations at a total of 24 different hostels in Southern and Western Norway. The findings of this thesis suggest that the hostel user is a highly versatile character who exhibits a wide spectrum of different motivations, many of which differ considerably from observations in more typical research settings. Moreover, the accounts of many hostel users reveal that mobility is an intrinsic feature to the overall experience of their holidays, while those exhibiting similar characteristics to the conventional backpacker typology frequently opted to perform in significantly different and more immobile ways. The thesis therefore represents a genuine contribution to knowledge on a subject which has often failed to escape an academic obsession with creating definitions and a need to oversimplify the large diversity of motivations used to characterise them