The micro-politics of flexibility: desensitisation, nebulous habits, and fluctuating affects of flexible work arrangements
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Keywords: geographies of work, flexibility, habits, time, affects
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Elisabetta Crovara, University of Melbourne
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Abstract
The digitisation of work and the covid-19 pandemic have increased the options for flexible work arrangements. This paper explores what flexibility actually entails in people’s everyday lives. Theoretically, it politicises the concept of flexibility through literature on habits mobilities and power-chronography. Thus, rather than a discrete desirable/undesirable object, flexibility becomes a multidimensional and creative force, able to both enable and restrict people’s time. Empirically, the paper sheds light on how flexible work arrangements desensitise people’s evaluations of their work week. Ethnographic fieldwork in regional Victoria shows that an increasing number of people choose to move regionally from Melbourne, work remotely or sometimes commute to the city, to avoid the “brutal” 9-5, 5-day work week and suburban life. However, interviews reveal that these newly adopted flexible work arrangements increase people’s labour of managing time and family expectations, and create “nebulous” habits, blurring the distinction between work and personal time. The paper concludes by arguing that people have fluctuating affects towards their changing flexibilities, thus troubling our understanding of the concept, and moving beyond conceptions of flexibility as a productivist buzzword and something inherently good and desirable.
The micro-politics of flexibility: desensitisation, nebulous habits, and fluctuating affects of flexible work arrangements
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Paper Abstract