Events

This workshop is jointly organised and funded by the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, and the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology and Design.

In recent years, social science scholarship has paid increasing attention to the pertinence of digital technologies in the reorganisation of social and urban life. Such concerns have ranged from the automation of smart cities infrastructures to increased dataveillance. Elsewhere, others have pointed to the impacts of these technologies on employment, professional lives and labour migration, as machines and infrastructures take on greater responsibilities in advanced human functions such as data querying, analysis, decision-making and management. Together, these studies highlight how society, and the materialities and demographies of work are fundamentally being (re)composed by technology.

Yet, in focusing on these macro shifts, current research is less attuned to the ways in which humans individually possess agency in navigating, appropriating and deviating from ‘official’ and hegemonic stances of what technological change stands for. Specifically, digital mediations can open up a variety of greenfield spaces for ‘work’ that (young) people are co-creating and inventing alongside technology’s advancements. This has in fact led to the emergence of new careers and mobility patterns that have ballooned and accelerated after the pandemic, including digital nomads; freelance service providers; gig platform workers, digital entrepreneurs; content creators on social media or simply work-from-home employees.

Each of these professions brings with it particular views of the self and future, spatial strategies and mobility wants by real-life agents who must be studied in context. Furthermore, these decisions may impact questions of migration and mobilities, engendering possibilities such as: the transnational sourcing of white-collar professionals working remotely, the creation of new kinds of digital nomads, and the transformation of permanent jobs into offshore ones. At the same time, the differential impact of digital work must also be acknowledged, with embodied labour of some migrants further entrenched, while artificial intelligence displaces the skilled. These potential configurations beg questions concerning how far digital work can go, and for whom, as well as the new social inequalities and labour displacements that it may produce.

This workshop aims to offer a nuanced perspective on the proliferation of new digital work modalities, materialities and mobilities in Asia—a region that not only has been understudied with respect to these trends, but that has also, for much of its modern history, relied on urban agglomeration and inward investment to drive economic development. The flexibility of digital work harbours a distinct potential to unravel at least a part of the relevance of this long-held model. The workshop is interested in raising some of these questions and more:

• The changing nature of work along the skills spectrum, including through situated innovations and AI-mediated practices
• Rechannelled migration streams and connectivity
• New work and leisure complementarities and flows
• Changing urban land use due to digital work
• Virtualised consumption, demand shifts, and new materialities
• Alternate conceptions of citizenship and civic participation
• Labour exploitation, logistical innovations and the politics of capital

WORKSHOP CONVENORS

Prof Brenda S.A. YEOH
Asia Research Institute & Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

Assoc Prof Weiqiang LIN
Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

Dr Connor GRAHAM
Asia Research Institute & Tembusu College, National University of Singapore

Dr Thijs WILLEMS
Singapore University of Technology and Design

Dr Eric KERR
Asia Research Institute & Tembusu College, National University of Singapore

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this workshop has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the event.