Digital Nomads: In Search of Freedom, Community, and Meaningful Work in the New Economy

Product Description

A small but growing group of today’s knowledge workers actively seek a lifestyle of freedom, using technology to perform their jobs, traveling far and wide, and moving as often as they like. These digital nomads have left their local coffee shops behind and now proudly post their “office of the day” photos from exotic locales, but what do their lives really look like?

In
Digital Nomads, Rachael Woldoff and Robert Litchfield take readers into an expatriate digital nomad community in Bali, Indonesia to better understand this growing demographic of typically Millennial workers. Through dozens of interviews and several stints living in a digital nomad hub, Woldoff and Litchfield present new answers to classic questions about community, creativity, and work. They further show why digital nomads leave their conventional lives behind, arguing that creative class and Millennial workers, though successful, often feel that their “world class cities” and desirable jobs are anything but paradise. They first follow their transitions into freelancing, entrepreneurship, and remote work, then explain how digital nomads create a fluid but intimate community abroad in the company of like-minded others. Ultimately, Woldoff and Litchfield provide insight into digital nomads’ efforts to live and work in ways that balance freedom, community, and creative fulfillment in the digital age.

A sympathetic yet critical take on this emerging group of workers,
Digital Nomads provides a revealing take on the changing nature of work and the problems of the new economy.

Review

“A wonderful mix of business, philosophy, and sociology.”–
Booklist

“The COVID-19 crisis has made remote work a reality. The members of the creative class can now choose where they want to live and work. And they are no longer bound to the superstar cities and tech hubs of the United States or other advanced economies. Rachael A. Woldoff and Robert Litchfield take us inside the thriving global digital nomad community of Bali, Indonesia where the expatriate creative class have come to realize their dreams.”
–Richard Florida, author of
The Rise of the Creative Class

”
Digital Nomads is an important, eye-opening account of young people grappling with an unlivable world, where hard work is no longer rewarded and creativity has become just another commodity–in Bali. Well-written and suggestive, it offers a scathing criticism of the failures of the ‘new economy,’ and may portend the dystopian future of the digital world of work–or an alternative to that future.”–Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor of Sociology, Yale University

“In the idyllic island of Bali, digital nomads flourish through networks. This important book shows that high-speed computer networks allow them to work far from home offices. Networks of fellow expatriates allow them to find information, community, and support.”
–Barry Wellman, Director, NetLab Network

About the Author

Rachael A. Woldoff is Professor of Sociology at West Virginia University. Her books include
Priced Out: Stuyvesant Town and the Loss of Middle-Class Neighborhoods and
White Flight/Black Flight: The Dynamics of Racial Change in an American Neighborhood, which was awarded the Best Book Award from the Urban Affairs Association.

Robert C. Litchfield is Associate Professor of Economics and Business at Washington & Jefferson College.