Deconstructing digital nomads: are they the last frontiers of the post-tourist?

Abstract

PurposeThis research aims to scrutinize the dwelling of digital nomads in postmodernism’s social, cultural and political context and to illuminate their post-tourist characteristics.Design/methodology/approachUsing a conceptual approach and sociological considerations, the study closely investigates the characteristics of digital nomads and offers a postmodernist ontological, epistemological and methodological stance.FindingsThe study highlights the ambiguity of the concepts of digital nomadism and tourism. Furthermore, since every digital nomad is a potential tourist with a work-leisure balance, it points out the need to grasp tourism and work from a different perspective than the dichotomy of modernism.Research limitations/implicationsThe postmodernist perspective offers a fruitful approach to illuminate the social conditions in which digital nomads dwell and concomitantly encompasses the tourist and nomad by rejecting dichotomies. The study also points out the need to place the agency of digital nomads in a broader context and analyze these mobilities from local and global interactions in addition to the nomads' point of view.Originality/valueThis study provides a new perspective on the relationship between digital nomads, postmodern conditions and their role as post-tourists.