Crafting Mobility's Courage: Developmental Trajectories and Cultural Production of Digital Nomads in Contemporary China

• In Event: 20220 - Section on Communication, Information Technology, and Media Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Section on Communication, Information Technology, and Media Sociology Roundtable VI: East and South Asia

Abstract

This research employs a longitudinal tracking method focusing on critical turning points in digital nomads' life trajectories and their social construction processes. Existing research predominantly concentrates on Global North experiences, sporadically exploring digital nomadism as a risk society symptom within neoliberal contexts (Thompson, 2021; Nash et al., 2018; Cook, 2023; Mancinelli, 2020; Miguel et al., 2023, 2024). Departing from this approach, the study constructs a multidimensional analytical framework from the Chinese local context, systematically interrogating the motivations, pathways, meanings, and social implications of digital nomads' mobility through historical time, spatial dimensions, associative life, and individual agency.
By adopting the Developmental Life Course perspective, the research goes beyond merely examining how individual lives are embedded in cross-temporal and cross-spatial networks (Bailey, 2009). It emphasizes how mobility behaviors and content production about mobility influence social perceptions and interactions, thereby transforming societal concepts and decision-making processes. Specifically, the study explores how the everyday media life landscape is embedded in a "de-institutionalized" social mobility process.
The analysis critically examines the intricate relationships between individual mobility experiences and broader social structures, revealing how digital nomads negotiate and reconstruct professional and personal identities within rapidly changing economic and technological landscapes.

Authors

• Xuelian Li, Huazhong University of Science and Technology

• Congrui Huang, The University of Hong Kong