Time-Space Flexibility @ Work: Analyzing the “Anywhere and Anytime Office” in the Entertainment, New Media and Arts Sector

Abstract: This thesis focuses on flexible work, known as telework, that is done through the use of information communication technology (ICT) devices in the entertainment, new media and arts sector. Fieldwork was conducted with independent professionals who work either as a producer / director, editor or motion graphic artist for the entertainment, new media and arts sector in the Los Angeles area. When working in a time-space flexible format, boundaries between home and work as well as personal and public realms tend to become blurred. In this blurred context, the thesis analyzes a web of cultural complexity that exists behind the materialization of boundaries when teleworking. This ethnographic work also problematizes the point of view of a number of social scientists that characterize flexibility and modern life as a liquid or chaotic lack of routines. Through empirical material this research examines rhythms and mechanisms between flexibility and stability, unveiling a more viscous consistency of everyday life. This work helps better understand the relation between home and work as well as stability and change. Focusing on telework practices can help rethink these realms and how they relate to each other but also how they transform each other. Research methods combined time-diaries, interviews, observation, visual ethnography and autoethnography.