Panel Presentation by Prof Gillian Symon, Prof Christine Hine and myself for #WORK2021. Based on our new book with #OUP

1. Presentation and Discussion
Challenges and Opportunities for
Researching Digital Work and Organization
Gillian Symon
Katrina Pritchard
Christine Hine
WORK2021
9th December 2021

2. Our book: an unexpected exercise
in digital work
2013: BAM Research Methods
Symposium ‘Researching work and
organization online’
2017: University of Surrey Symposium
‘Research methods for digital work’
2018/9: Discussions with publishers,
discussions with contributors and book
outline agreed
2020/21: Working with contributors to
draft and finalise chapters, writing
introduction and conclusion, editorial
administration.
October 2021: Book Published by OUP

3. Digital work
“Work today always entails the digital;
even where the work itself doesn’t
directly involve a computing device, most
contemporary work relates to digital
phenomena”
(Orlikowski and Scott, 2016: 88)
Challenges of Capturing Digital Work
• Blurred boundaries
• Fluid workspaces
• Networks of work
• Management and surveillance

4. Digital work
Challenges of Digital Data
• Overwhelming data
• Access to data
• Multi-modal data
• Mediated data
• Captivated by the data
Underlying Themes
• Developing & appropriating
tools
• Invisibilisation and visibilisation
• Breaking down of boundaries
• Sociomateriality
• Reflexive practice

5. Overview of the Book
Part I Working with Screens: detailed
analyses of individual and group
interactions with devices and through
screens
Part II Digital Working Practices:
capturing how contemporary digital
working practices unfold from the
perspective of the worker
Part III Distributed Work and Organizing:
how digital interactions both shape and are
shaped by emerging work practices and
organizing
Part IV Digital Traces of Work: following
trails work and workers leave behind and
curating these for research purposes

6. Future of digital work and
research methods
Ethics and digital work research
• Participants and partners: relations in the field
• Publicness and platformed behaviours
Skills and the digital work researcher
• Everyday competences in the digital world
• Tool-building and repurposing
• Agility, mixing methods and teamwork
The post-pandemic future of digital work
• Rapid transformations in space-times of work
• Inequalities in access and experience

7. Many thanks to all our contributors
for their fabulous chapters!
David Antons
Mario Aquino Alves
Adam Badger
Diane E. Bailey
Frank G.A. de Bakker
David Barberá-Tomás
Stephen R. Barley
Eber Betanzos
Claudine Bonneau
Eliane Bucher
Itziar Castelló
Tania Pereira
Christopoulos
Claudio Coletta
Cami Goray
Francisca Grommé
Eduard Grünwald
Steve Huckle
Mohammad Hossein
Jarrahi
Dariusz Jemielniak
Paul Leonardi
Richard Rogers
David Rozas
Saiph Savage
Peter Kalum Schou
Viviane Sergi
Agata Stasik
Carlos Toxtli
Matthias Waldkirch
Andrew Whelan
Nina Willment
Adriana Wilner
Yinglong Zhang
Stephanie Zirker

8. Discussion
Gillian, Katrina &
Christine