Mobility Humanities

This paper examines the commodification of the digital nomad lifestyle by private and public sector actors. Since the 2010s, there has been an ever-increasing number of services, infrastructures and events (i.e., digital nomad infrastructure, DNI) tailored to the growing digital nomad consumer segment. Previously approached as a counter-cultural and alternative lifestyle, the increased commodification of digital nomadism speaks of it becoming more mainstream. Yet, little is known of how the DNI conditions a digital nomad’s mobile lifestyle, and more broadly, how the commodification of the digital nomad lifestyle shapes the digital nomadic mobilities. The data for this paper consists of 1) multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, including observation and forty-six interviews with digital nomads and different stakeholders in Spain (2021-2022), Bulgaria (2021) and Thailand (2019) and of 2) online data, including a mapping of services digital nomads employ. The rise of the DNI, a diverse set of services and infrastructures of which nomads can take advantage, evidence the rapid commodification of the digital nomad lifestyle. The DNI shapes nomads’ mobility trajectories, smoothens their transition into the digital nomad lifestyle and offers them a social infrastructure. It is argued that the commodification shapes digital nomadic mobilities in such a manner that it opens to question as to what extent digital nomadism can be considered a counter-cultural lifestyle.