Virtual Spaces, Intermediate Places: Doing Identity in ICT-Enabled Work

The heavy utilisation of ICT has increasingly contributed to the blurring of boundaries between work and private life. New technologies alter not only the place of work, but also the schedules, forms of control, experience and worker agency. To fully grasp the effects as well as possible strategies for workers’ resistance, it is crucial to take issues of workers’ identification and recognition into account. This contribution addresses the interrelation of blurring work boundaries and identity work by utilising the first results of two occupational case studies with business consultants and virtual assistants. While some traditional sources for recognition seem to disappear in these fields of work, they provide other sources for compensation, albeit their appropriation requires difficult conditions to be met.