Abstract
The heavy utilisation of ICT has increasingly contributed to the blurring of boundaries between work and private life. New technologies alter not only the place of work, but also the schedules, forms of control, experience and worker agency. To fully grasp the effects as well as possible strategies for workers’ resistance, it is crucial to take issues of workers’ identification and recognition into account. This contribution addresses the interrelation of blurring work boundaries and identity work by utilising the first results of two occupational case studies with business consultants and virtual assistants. While some traditional sources for recognition seem to disappear in these fields of work, they provide other sources for compensation, albeit their appropriation requires difficult conditions to be met.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahbe, T. (1997). Ressourcen—Transformation—Identität. In H. Keupp & R. Höfer (Eds.), Identitätsarbeit heute: Klassische und aktuelle Perspektiven der Identitätsforschung (1st ed., pp. 207–226). Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft.
Allvin, M., Aronsson, G., Hagström, T., Johansson, G., & Lundberg, U. (2011). Work without boundaries: Psychological perspectives on the new working life. Wiley.
Allvin, M., Mellner, C., Movitz, F., & Aronsson, G. (2013). The diffusion of flexibility: Estimating the incidence of low-regulated working conditions. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 3(3), 99–116.
Alvesson, M., & Willmott, H. (2002). Identity regulation as organizational control: Producing the appropriate individual. Journal of Management Studies, 39, 619–644. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00305
Archer-Brown, C., Marder, B., Calvard, T., & Kowalski, T. (2018). Hybrid social media: Employees’ use of a boundary-spanning technology. New Technology, Work and Employment, 33, 74–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12103
Bauman, Z. (2005). Work, consumerism and the new poor (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Böhle, F., Stöger, U., & Weihrich, M. (2015). Interaktionsarbeit gestalten: Vorschläge und Perspektiven für humane Dienstleistungsarbeit. edition sigma.
Cavazotte, F., da Costa Lemos, A. H., & Villadsen, K. (2014). Corporate smart phones: Professionals’ conscious engagement in escalating work connectivity. New Technology, Work and Employment, 29, 72–87.
Cooper, C. L., & Lu, L. (2018). Presenteeism at work. Cambridge University Press.
Dejours, C., Deranty, J.-P., Renault, E., & Smith, N. H. (2018). The return of work in critical theory: Self, society, politics. Cambridge University Press.
Flecker, L., & Schönauer, A. (2016). The production of ‘placelessness’: Digital service work in global value chains. In J. Flecker (Ed.), Space, place and global digital work (pp. 11–30). Palgrave Macmillan.
Fonner, K. L., & Stache, L. C. (2012). All in a day’s work, at home: Teleworkers’ management of micro role transitions and the work–home boundary. New Technology, Work and Employment, 27, 242–257.
Goffman, E. (1975). Stigma: Über Techniken der Bewältigung beschädigter Identität. Suhrkamp.
Gold, M., & Mustafa, M. (2013). ‘Work always wins’: Client colonisation, time management and the anxieties of connected freelancers. New Technology, Work and Employment, 28, 197–211.
Graeber, D. (2018). Bullshit jobs: A theory. Penguin.
Hall, R. (2010). Renewing and revising the engagement between labour process theory and technology. In P. Thompson & C. Smith (Eds.), Working life: Renewing labour process analysis (pp. 159–181). Palgrave Macmillan.
Hislop, D., & Axtell, C. (2007). The neglect of spatial mobility in contemporary studies of work: The case of telework. New Technology, Work and Employment, 22, 34–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-005X.2007.00182.x
Hochschild, A. R. (2012). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling (updated with a new preface). University of Central Punjab.
Holtgrewe, U. (2003). Anerkennung und Arbeit in der Dienst-Leistungs-Gesellschaft. Eine identitätstheoretische Perspektive. In M. Moldaschl & G. G. Voß (Eds.), Subjektivierung von Arbeit (2nd ed., pp. 211–233). Reiner Hampp.
Holtgrewe, U. (2014). New new technologies: The future and the present of work in information and communication technology. New technology, work and employment, 29, 9–24.
Honneth, A. (1994). Kampf um Anerkennung. Zur moralischen Grammatik sozialer Konflikte. Suhrkamp.
Hürtgen, S., & Voswinkel, S. (2012). Subjektivierung der Biographie. Lebensorientierungen und Anspruchshaltungen. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 37, 347–365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11614-012-0060-4
International Labour Organization, & the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (ILO Eurofound). (2017). Working anytime, anywhere: The effects on the world of work (Joint ILO-Eurofound report). Author.
Kaun, A., & Fast, K. (2014). Mediatization of culture and everyday life. Södertörn Högskola. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-22485. Accessed 23 February 2021.
Kelliher, C., & Anderson, D. (2010). Doing more with less? Flexible working practices and the intensification of work. Human Relations, 63, 83–106.
Keupp, H. (2008). Identitätskonstruktionen in der spätmodernen Gesellschaft: Riskante Chancen bei prekären Ressourcen. Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie, 7, 291–308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11620-008-0026-5
Keupp, H., & Höfer, R. (Eds.). (1997). Identitätsarbeit heute: Klassische und aktuelle Perspektiven der Identitätsforschung. Suhrkamp.
Koslowski, N. C. (2016). ‘My company is invisible’—Generating trust in the context of placelessness, precarity and invisibility in virtual work. In J. Flecker (Ed.), Space, place and global digital work (pp. 171–199). Palgrave Macmillan.
Kossek, E. E. (2016). Managing work–life boundaries in the digital age. Organizational Dynamics, 45, 258–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.07.010
Krotz, F., & Hepp, A. (Eds.). (2012). Mediatisierte Welten. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Lehdonvirta, V., & Mezier, P. (2013). Identity and self-organization in unstructured work [Working paper]. European Co-operation in Science and Technology (COST).
Makimoto, T., & Manners, D. (1997). Digital nomad. Wiley.
Markham, A. (2013). Remix cultures, remix methods: Reframing qualitative inquiry for social media contexts. In N. K. Denzin, & M. D. Giardina (Eds.), Global dimensions of qualitative inquiry (pp. 63–81). Left Coast.
Mead, G. H. (1973). Geist, Identität und Gesellschaft: Aus der Sicht des Sozialbehaviorismus. Suhrkamp.
Merrifield, A. (1993). Place and space: A Lefebvrian reconciliation. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 18, 516–531. https://doi.org/10.2307/622564
Messenger, J. C., & Gschwind, L. (2016). Three generations of telework: New ICTs and the (r) evolution from home office to virtual office. New Technology, Work and Employment, 31, 195–208.
Miles, I. D., Belousova, V., & Chichkanov, N. (2018). Knowledge intensive business services: Ambiguities and continuities. Foresight, 20, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1108/FS-10-2017-0058
Mohr, G., Müller, A., Rigotti, T., Aycan, Z., & Tschan, F. (2006). The assessment of psychological strain in work contexts. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 22, 198–206. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.22.3.198
Moldaschl, M., & Voß, G. G. (Eds.). (2002). Subjektivierung von Arbeit (Vol. 2). Rainer Hampp.
Ojala, S., Nätti, J., & Anttila, T. (2014). Informal overtime at home instead of telework: Increase in negative work–family interface. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 34, 69–87. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-03-2013-0037
Peters, K., & Sauer, D. (2005). Indirekte Steuerung—eine neue Herrschaftsform. Zur revolutionären Qualität des gegenwärtigen Umbruchprozesses. In H. Wagner (Ed.), „Rentier’ ich mich noch?“: Neue Steuerungskonzepte im Betrieb (pp. 23–58). VSA.
Pink, S. (2012). Situating everyday life: Practices and places. SAGE.
Reichenberger, I. (2018). Digital nomads—A quest for holistic freedom in work and leisure. Annals of Leisure Research, 21, 364–380. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2017.1358098.
Rosso, B. D., Dekas, K. H., & Wrzesniewski, A. (2010). On the meaning of work: A theoretical integration and review. Research in Organizational Behavior, 30, 91–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2010.09.001
Roth-Ebner, C. (2016). Spatial phenomena of mediatised work. In J. Flecker (Ed.), Space, place and global digital work (pp. 227–245). Palgrave Macmillan.
Sayah, S. (2013). Managing work–life boundaries with information and communication technologies: The case of independent contractors. New Technology, Work and Employment, 28, 179–196.
Sennett, R. (1998). Der flexible Mensch: Die Kultur des neuen Kapitalismus. Berlin.
Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2007). The recovery experience questionnaire: Development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 12, 204–221. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.204
Sproll, M. (2016). Missing links in service value chain analysis—Space, identity and inequality in Brazilian call centres. In J. Flecker (Ed.), Space, place and global digital work (pp. 105–125). Palgrave Macmillan.
Sturdy, A., Fleming, P., & Delbridge, R. (2010). Normative control and beyond in contemporary capitalism. In P. Thompson & C. Smith (Eds.), Working life: Renewing labour process analysis (pp. 113–135). Palgrave Macmillan.
Thompson, P., & Briken, K. (2017). Actually existing capitalism: Some digital delusions. In K. Briken, S. Chillas, M. Krzywdzinski & A.Marks (Eds.), The new digital workplace: How new technologies revolutionise work (Critical perspectives on work and employment, pp. 241–263). Red Globe.
Thompson, P., & Smith, C. (Eds.). (2010). Working life: Renewing labour process analysis. Palgrave Macmillan.
Towers, I., Duxbury, L., Higgins, C., & Thomas, J. (2006). Time thieves and space invaders: Technology, work and the organization. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 19, 593–618. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810610686076
Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. Simon & Schuster.
Voß, G. G., & Pongratz, H. J. (1998). Der Arbeitskraftunternehmer: Eine neue Grundform der Ware Arbeitskraft? Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 50, 131–158.
Voswinkel, S. (2000). Die Anerkennung der Arbeit im Wandel. Zwischen Würdigung und Bewunderung. In U. Holtgrewe, S. Voswinkel, & G. Wagner (Eds.), Anerkennung und Arbeit (pp. 39–61). UVK.
Voswinkel, S. (2013). Anerkennung und Identität im Wandel der Arbeitswelt. In L. Billmann & J. Held (Eds.), Solidarität in der Krise (pp. 211–235). Springer VS.
Wajcman, J. (2015). Pressed for time: The acceleration of life in digital capitalism. UCP.
Wharton, A. S. (1999). The psychosocial consequences of emotional labor. In D. M. Figart & R. J. Steinberg (Eds.), Emotional labor in the service economy (pp. 158–176). Sage.
Will-Zocholl, M., Flecker, J., & Schörpf, P. (2019). Zur realen Virtualität von Arbeit: Raumbezüge digitalisierter Wissensarbeit. AIS-Studien, 12(1), 36–54. https://doi.org/10.21241/ssoar.64882
Wilson, J. M., Boyer O’Leary, M., Metiu, A., & Jett, Q. R. (2008). Perceived proximity in virtual work: Explaining the paradox of far-but-close. Organization Studies, 29, 979–1002. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840607083105
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Klaus, D., Flecker, J. (2021). Virtual Spaces, Intermediate Places: Doing Identity in ICT-Enabled Work. In: Will-Zocholl, M., Roth-Ebner, C. (eds) Topologies of Digital Work. Dynamics of Virtual Work. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80327-8_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80327-8_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-80326-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-80327-8
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)