Gender and ICT participates in the EU COST (Cooperation on Science and Technology) Action ‘The Dynamics of Virtual Work’. This is an international network of researchers whose work, from different disciplinary perspectives, addresses the development and implications of virtual work. Virtual work covers labour, whether paid or unpaid, that is carried out using a combination of digital and telecommunications technologies, and/or produces content for digital media.
The Action is organised into four Working Groups, one of which, on ‘Creativity, Skills, Knowledge, and New Occupational Identities’ is chaired by Juliet Webster. The rationale for this Working Group is that the processes by which new forms of work, occupations and skills are formed are still poorly understood. In this group, we aim to understand and theorise these processes. We consider changes in the class and other structuring relations of virtual work, particularly gender relations. We examine transformations in work processes, working time and place, and the blurring of boundaries between the public and the private domains, between paid and unpaid labour. Our focus includes manufacturing and white-collar occupations. We also consider the management of work in virtual teams, changing forms of workplace collectives and of individualism, and the emergence of new forms of occupational identity.
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