Abstract
This article investigates the lived experiences of remote workers during the Italian lockdown, and the role of digital platforms in their working and everyday life activities, as well as the consequences of home confinement measures on personal and working conditions. Drawing on 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews, the paper's findings suggest that, following a massive extension of transmedia work, remote workers experienced a ‘fractured’ and ‘always-on’ life. During the lockdown, the ever more pervasive role of digital media favoured the convergence of different spaces and times into the home, the erosion of the distinction between private and professional life and the exacerbation of previous social inequalities, especially inequalities in relation to gender and digital access. In this scenario, platform and surveillance capitalist logics were further reinforced, while ‘presence bleed’ in the experiences of workers increased.
Highlights
In the last two decades, the exponential growth of online platforms has been re-shaping all spheres of everyday life (Bucher, 2018), the labour market and working conditions (Huws, 2016; Casilli & Posada, 2019), as well as the spatial organisation of cities (Huws, 2014)
This paper focuses on how remote workers experienced their jobs and everyday life during the Italian lockdown, which was imposed by the national government between 9 March and 3 May 2020, to contain the spread of COVID-19
We have explored the lived experiences of remote workers during the Italian lockdown, in order to investigate the role of digital platforms in their working and everyday life activities, as well as the consequences of home confinement measures on personal and working conditions
Summary
In the last two decades, the exponential growth of online platforms has been re-shaping all spheres of everyday life (Bucher, 2018), the labour market and working conditions (Huws, 2016; Casilli & Posada, 2019), as well as the spatial organisation of cities (Huws, 2014). In the hybrid networks of contemporary digital society, matter and information are no longer separable (Lupton, 2016; Manovich, 2013), and the distinction between online and offline realms seems no longer relevant (Lupton, 2014) These trends are likely to accelerate due to the COVID-19 emergency, as containment measures imposed severe limitations on human mobility and physical experience. Following the introduction of social distancing measures, there has been a striking increase in online media consumption practices (Jones, 2020), while a distinction between essential and non-essential productive activities was continuously iterated every time new restrictions were disclosed by national governments (Stevano, Ali & Jamieson, 2020) Within this scenario, a new division of labour has emerged between remote workers and place-based jobs, which have been categorised as essential or not according to different national legislations
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