Cultural Values and Leaving the Creative Class City: The Case of Expat Digital Nomads

• In Event: 1451 - Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 2. Cultural Values and the City

Abstract

Sociology has seen a revival of cultural studies, with many urban and community scholars especially interested in the ways in which culture brings about strategies for action (see Swidler 1986). In the present paper, we examine a sample of people who are part of an expat “digital nomad: subculture, and ask what cultural “toolkit” nomads use to solve their problems back home? To do so, this paper analyzes data from fieldwork and 70 formal interviews to examine a sample of creative class professionals who left their homes in order to become expat digital nomads, “professionals who prefer a location-independent lifestyle that allows them to travel and work anywhere in the world” (Mohn 2014). Given that interacting, social communities depend, in part, upon shared values in order to flourish, we identified the five core values that inform digital nomads’ decisions to take action to leave home and engage in nomad community building abroad. We label these values: individualism, self-improvement, sharing and helping, positivity and hustle, and minimalism. As each value is significant to the character of their community-building, we first discuss them individually and then describe their confluence in Bali’s digital nomad community.

Authors

• Rachael A. Woldoff, West Virginia University

• Robert C. Litchfield, Washington and Jefferson College