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
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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

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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