Frozen Margaritas, Free Nibbles and the Future of Work : A Small Ethnography of Digital Professionals at SXSW

• Despite the growing interest in how digital technologies affect work life, there is still a need for in-depth research and policy work that scrutinize where, by whom, and how the anticipated work futures are shaped and appropriated. Who sets the agenda for the future of work, and how are these images about the future of work with digital technologies created and negotiated? More importantly, where does this occur? There are key moments at a handful of globally influential 'first places' where the ideas and inventions for the digital future of work are shown and explored. These nascent ideas quickly set expectations as industries, communities, organizations, and individuals adopt and further disseminate what they have learned at those pivotal sites. This paper reports from an ethnographic pilot study of a global conference that has grown into an unmissable taste-making event that sets trends and shapes the future of work through and with digital technologies: South By SouthWest (SXSW) in Austin, TX, USA. Drawing on observations and interviews with ten participants representing the digital and creative industries in Sweden, this paper shows how digital work futures are constituted through anticipatory and appropriation practices, and how a sense of belonging - based mainly on pleasures - runs through the processes and practices by which technologies, experiences, and anticipations become entangled in everyday professional environments.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Medieteknik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Media and Communication Technology (hsv//eng)

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