Negotiating the boundaries between home and work practices: The case of home-workers
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Volume 1
Date
2012-04
Authors
Koslowski, Nora Christina
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
Published Version
Abstract
When people work from home, the domains of home and work are co-located, often under
one roof. Home-workers have to cope with the meeting of two practices that have
traditionally been physically separated. In light of this, we need to understand: how do people
who work from home negotiate the boundaries between their home and work practices? What
kinds of boundaries do people construct? How do boundaries affect the relationship between
home and work as domains? What kinds of boundaries are available to home-workers? Are
home-workers in charge of their boundaries or do they co-create them with others? How does
this position home-workers in their domains?
In order to address these questions, I analysed a variety of data, including newspaper
columns, online forum discussions, interviews, and personal diary entries, using a discourse
analytic approach that lends itself to issues of positioning. Current literature clashes over
whether home-workers are in control of their boundaries, and over the relationship between
home and work that arises out of boundary negotiations, i.e. whether home and work are
dichotomous or layered. I seek to contribute to boundary theory by adopting a practice theory
stance (Wenger, 1998) to guide my analysis. By viewing home and work as practices, I show
that boundary negotiations depend on how home-workers are positioned, e.g. if they are
positioned as peripheral in a domain, they lack influence over boundaries. I demonstrate that
home and work constitute a number of different practices, rather than a rigid dichotomy, and
that the way home and work are related are not the same for all home-workers. The
application of practice concepts further shows how relationships between practices are
created. The contribution of this work is a reconceptualisation of current boundary theory
away from individual and cognitive notions (Nippert-Eng, 1996) into the realm of
positioning.
Description
Keywords
Home-work boundary practices , Negotiation , Flexibility , Teleworking , Working from home , Mobile working , Working conditions
Citation
Koslowski, N.C., 2012. Negotiating the boundaries between home and work practices: The case of home-workers. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.