Digital Nomads:Freedom,Responsibility and the Neoliberal Order
Digital nomads are individuals who,taking advantage of portable computing technologies and widespread Internet ac-cess,can work remotely from any location and use this freedom to explore the world.Using ethnographic and netnographic re-search,this article outlines this recent phenomenon,framing it into the lens of lifestyle mobilities and individualization theories.It adds to existing research by focusing on the new set of responsibilities and commitments entailed by the individualization process.In research participants'explanations,disengaging from sedentary life enabled them to express an ethos of freedom,in which minimalism,uncertainty and risk replace material accumulation,stability and comfort.It is important however to pay at-tention to the structural constraints within which their ethos of freedom operates.The aim of the article is twofold:on one hand,it contrasts digital nomads'sociocultural imaginaries of(in)mobility with the specific economic strategies they use to sustain their continuous mobility,including geoarbitrage and the commodification of network capital.On the other,it provides fresh ethnogra-phic evidence on how digital nomads'self-realization project meets the ideology of entrepreneurialism,allowing them to take ad-vantage of privileged nationalities to navigate the global inequalities of the capitalist system.The article argues that,rather than a challenge to the system,digital nomadism is an opportunistic adaptation to neoliberal impacts.
digital nomadslifestyle mobilitiesgeoarbitragecommodification of network capital
万方数据
维普
