Podcasts from the SfAA

Big thanks to Diana on the podcast team for doing all of the work to get this podcast published!

Tracy L. Meerwarth (General Motors)

Disentangling Patterns of a Distributed Life
As a researcher who studies how work gets accomplished in the spaces workers inhabit, I have become keenly aware of the patterns of behaviors and emotions that arise from my experience as a mobile worker. In this paper, I explore re-conceptualizations of physical space and the shifting changes in relationships, which emerge with increased mobility. I argue that personal conflict
arises when trying to manage culturally valued concepts such as integration and mobility simultaneously. I illustrate how insights emerging from this conflict can inspire and inform directions of future research at the intersection of work and mobility.

Julia Gluesing (Wayne State U)

Identity in a Virtual World: The Co-evolution of Technology, Work and Lifecycle
This paper illustrates how technology, work and lifecycle co-evolve and how the integration of work, family and friends into virtual workspaces can open up new conceptualizations of personal identity. An identity that is discretely bounded and that is dependent on physical surroundings can give way to one that more closely aligns with the lived experiences of mobile work and life. If we think of identity as multiple, as open to possibility, and as flexibly responsive to multiple cultures and contexts, we can alter our ideas about work and its relationship to our lives in today’s hybridized, dematerialized and decontextualized world.

Brigitte Jordan (Palo Alto Rsch Ctr)

Performing Multilocality: Reflections on a Distributed Life
Transitioning from fixed employment to mobile consultant status is no longer unusual for knowledge workers. In my case that transition played itself out in two “home/workplaces,” one in the Silicon Valley of California, the other on the tropical Pacific coast of Costa Rica. I explore some of the opportunities as well as some of the challenges that emerged as worklife and personal life became fused and fully integrated. Finally, I consider the implications of the fact that the meaning of “work” and “non-work” has changed in my life and quite possibly in the lives of other “integrated nomads.”

Loril Gossett (U Texas-Austin)

Loril presented her paper via telephone at the SfAA. She was nice enough to provide us with a video though, you can find it here:

gossett-2008-sfaa-presentation

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Occupational Websites as Locations for Remote and Mobile Worker Culture: An Examination of Temporary Worker Websites
Individuals employed in nonstandard work arrangements (e.g., independent contractors, temporary workers, telecommuters) often find themselves working alone, without people from their home companies to interact with face-to-face on a regular basis. Although these workers may be physically separated from their peers, their participation on occupational websites allows them to connect with other people in similar work situations. This paper examines the role that such websites play in developing a work-related culture for remote and mobile employees. This paper focuses on websites such as notmysdesk.com and temp24-7.com, to illustrate how these online communities foster a distinctive occupational community for temporary workers.

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Session took place in Memphis, TN at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2008.