Reconstructing creative work due to
COVID-19
Exploring the impact of COVID-19 and the role of media for creatives newly working from home
Photo Photo byPaweł Czerwiński onUnsplash
By: Lucie Váňová
Supervisor: Staffan Ericson Södertörn University | School of Culture and Education Master’s dissertation 30 credits Media, Communication and Cultural Analysis | spring 2020
Abstract
The author: Lucie Váňová The supervisor: Staffan Ericson Term: Spring 2020 Title: Reconstructing creative work due to COVID-19 Keywords: boundary theory, covid-19, connectivity, connectedness, disconnection, creativity, creative industries, creative work, work from home
The purpose of this thesis is to explore the impact of the situation imposed by the spread of COVID-19 on people working in creative industries and their creative processes, and analyse the role of media in reconstructing their work and leisure spaces at home. The research topics include handling of this change by the creatives, the role of media in reconstructing creatives' homes and the impact of this situation on their creativity. The methodology for gathering data is centred around interviews with the representatives of the group of people working in the creative industries. The empirical data is analysed with the help of the theoretical framework. Among the theories, the six most important topics are: Connectivity versus connectedness, Front region and back region, Boundary theory, Transformations between regions, Reasons to disconnect from media, and Influences on creativity. On one hand, the conclusion of this thesis is that creatives were handling the change of their work environment mostly well, possibly, perhaps creativity is usually influenced by internal factors, and as such the changed work environment as an external factor doesn't influence it as much as the social isolation situation due to COVID-19 as a whole. On the other hand, for many creatives the changed work environment provided calmer conditions for work and offered more time for leisure, although the majority of the participants were working more in this new situation than before. Due to the fact that all of the interviewees had to use their digital technologies and internet in order to work, the escape to the offline world often served as a place for relaxation. Moreover, the majority of the interviewees' devices was used for multi-functional purposes, for both work and for relax. Ultimately the impact on the creatives and their work was studied from different perspectives, offering a snapshot of creative work in extraordinary times.
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Acknowledgment
The process of writing this thesis has been rather difficult as the global situation around COVID-19 influenced the relevance of my previously chosen topic. It was with the help of my supervisor Staffan Ericson, that I found new relevant grounds for my thesis, and I dare to say that the current topic is better than the original. I sincerely thank him for his honest opinions and thorough remarks which helped to navigate this thesis into an improved direction.
Further, I would like to thank my boyfriend Wolfgang Biersack whose proofreading and support provided tremendous help in delivering this thesis with sanity and calmness.
Lastly, I would like to thank the participants in the interview process whose honest opinions and reflections made the analysis of this thesis possible.
2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ...... 5 2. The objective ...... 7 2.1 Research topic ...... 8 2.2 The research questions ...... 8 3. Literature review ...... 9 3.1 Literature on digital connection ...... 9 3.2 Literature on digital disconnection ...... 13 3.3 Boundaries and regions for different behaviours ...... 16 3.4 Literature on creative Industries ...... 18 3.4.1 Creative or cultural industries? ...... 19 3.5 Literature on creativity and creative processes ...... 20 4. Theoretical context ...... 24 4.1 Connectivity versus connectedness ...... 24 4.1.1 Isolation ...... 25 4.2 Front region and back region ...... 25 4.3 Boundary theory ...... 27 4.4 Transformations between regions ...... 28 4.5 Disconnection from media ...... 29 4.6 Creativity ...... 30 4.6.1 Definition of creativity ...... 30 4.6.2 Influences on creativity ...... 32 5. Material and methods ...... 33 5.1 Interviews ...... 34 5.1.1 Interview style and setting (Strategy) ...... 35 5.1.2 Choice of participants (Tactics) ...... 36 5.1.3 Practicalities (Technique) ...... 38 5.1.4 Informed Consent ...... 39 5.1.5 Qualitative analysis ...... 39 5.1.6 Evaluation of the Interview Process ...... 39 5.1.7 Limitations ...... 40 6. Result and analysis ...... 41 6.1 Human connectedness ...... 42 6.2 Digital connectivity ...... 44 6.2.1 Positive aspects of digital connectivity ...... 45
3 6.2.2 Negative aspects of digital connectivity ...... 47 6.2.3 Aspects which are missed in digital connectivity ...... 47 6.3 Front region and back region ...... 49 6.3.1 Front region ...... 49 6.3.2 Back region ...... 50 6.3.3 Backstage control: clashing of both regions ...... 52 6.4 Boundary theory ...... 52 6.4.1 Physical boundary ...... 54 6.4.2 Temporal boundary ...... 57 6.4.3 Mental boundary ...... 61 6.5 Transformations between ritual states ...... 64 6.5.1 Intermedia (Different media) ...... 64 6.5.2 Intramedia (One medium) ...... 65 6.5.3 Role of music in creating different kinds of exclusivity ...... 66 6.6 Reasons to disconnect from media ...... 68 6.6.1 Resisting information overload ...... 69 6.7 Creativity ...... 70 6.7.1 Internal influences on creativity ...... 71 6.7.2 External influences on creativity ...... 74 7. Conclusion ...... 77 7.1 Answering Research question one ...... 78 7.2 Answering Research question two ...... 79 7.3 Answering Research question three ...... 79 8. List of References ...... 81 9. Appendix ...... 89 Appendix 1: Interview questions ...... 89 Appendix 2: Information letter and consent form ...... 92 Appendix 3: List of theoretical concepts ...... 94
4 1. Introduction
News and information about the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are in the current situation everywhere, and reader behold, this thesis does not offer an escape from it. The original aim of this thesis was to study the relationship between being unplugged (digitally disconnected) and self-perceived creativity by people working in the creative industries. Yet, with the changed circumstances, being connected to the internet became essential for working. As José van Dijck stated “For many of the plugged-in, opting out is not an option: it would mean opting out of sociality altogether, since online activities are completely intertwined with offline social life.” (van Dijck, 2013, p. 173). Therefore, seeking people for an unplugging experiment seemed highly irrelevant in a situation where the broader social life (or work-life) is the online life. In comparison to the worldwide changes which COVID- 19 brought, the change of the course of this thesis seems then less dramatic.
With the arrival of COVID-19, many professionals have experienced a switch to home offices. The “normative” way of work has been shaken and many people had to adopt to new ways of working. No matter how long this crisis will last, it offers a great time for reflection which can be fruitful for these specific times, as well as for after the crisis. Since social isolation and digital connection is the reality of many people right now, it is worth exploring what the impacts of it on individuals are. This isolated, always-online plugged-in environment offers a window to an extreme way of living. That is why I argue that right now is a great time for people to reflect on the situation as the world undergoes large changes.
Never before in my life have governments on a global level had to close down borders, cafes and schools for an extended period of time. The question of how creatives cope with this can shine more light on extreme digital connectivity, the role of media in creating mental and physical boundaries for separating leisure and work in the same environment, freelance work, and the importance of working with other people for fostering creativity and good working conditions.
5 1.1 Creative industries
Creativity in times of social distancing, deep digital connection and transformed home environments into workplaces is a novel experience for many working in the creative industries. Therefore, looking into influences on creativity in the 'regular' (before COVID-19) state is relevant for seeing what social distancing workplaces, regular workplaces and creativity have in common.
Besides my personal interest in the creative industry, the choice to select people working within the creative industry as a group in focus, is academically anchored. Creative industries even before the enforced work from home (WFH) situation have often been consisting of freelance work with flexible working hours. In fact, according to a study (Upwork, 2019.), people within arts and design, and entertainment were the two leading occupations in terms of freelancers, where in both fields there were proportionally more freelancers than non- freelancers. Although the previous study was financed by a freelancing website, similar results were found in Statista (2020) where instead of the global market, Germany was the country of interest. According to this study, cultural occupations are leading by far the freelancing market as well.
In other words, interest in creative industries not only follows the tradition of media scholars who were interested in the creative industry for its important role as 'symbol creators' (Hesmondhalgh 2013, p.20), often creating products that are widely distributed, and which are helping to share a common set of 'cultural packages' (Hansen, 2010, p.112). The creative industries are also working with “deep-seated cultural assumptions and anxieties” (Hansen, 2010, p.112), and having impacts on the creation of norms in wide societies (Hall, 1973). Further, it is also the factor of a high level experience of work from home previously to this situation among creative workers (Upwork 2019, Statista 2020), and a combination with the fact, that people working in the creative occupations are more likely to suffer from mental problems (Kyaga et al., 2012). Therefore, there is an interest in how creatives are being affected by the novel situation. This combination of reasons makes people working in the creative industry highly unique and relevant in the time of work from home due to COVID- 19. Furthermore, to approach this topic and comprehend it, choosing a group of interest to assess these changes with, acted as a way to scale down the topic. Further in the text I regularly refer to people working within the creative industry only as 'creatives'.
6 2. The objective
The aim of this thesis is to explore the impact of the situation imposed by the spread of COVID-19 on people working in creative industries and their creative processes, and analyse the role of media in reconstructing their work and leisure spaces at home.
The general relevance of this topic lays in how the novel situation may be a window to alternative ways of work. The general relevance of focusing on people working in the creative industry as a focal point to view this thesis, has been expressed in the following way by Hesmondhalgh (2013, 4):
“The importance of the cultural industries in modern societies rests on three related elements: their ability to make and circulate products that influence our knowledge, understanding and experience (texts); their role as systems for the management of creativity and knowledge; and their effects as agents of economic, social and cultural change.”
Moreover, as a quote by Kaun and Treré (2018) suggests “freelance work that enhances the precariousness of boundaries between work and private life” (p. 14), shows that industries which have had a large experience in remote or 'freelance' work prior to the enforced WFH (Upwork, 2019, Statista, 2020), with the problematic of keeping boundaries between work and leisure, have been of an academic interest prior to this new situation. These points in combination with the fact that creatives are more prone to mental health problems (Kyaga et al., 2012) and creative work being highly individual (Amabile, 2012, p 10), thus perhaps more independent of teamwork, invites further research on the creative industries in these times.
This area is interesting for gaining a deeper understanding of what individual creatives think of this situation professionally and how do they perceive the switch compared to their “normal” employment. Therefore, I would argue this field is interesting for both creatives and researchers of social sciences and media scholars as it encompasses topics from media and everyday life together with creativity.
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2.1 Research topic
In the times of quarantine or social distancing, people seek digital connections in place of real life ones. However, how is creative work in the constant state of digital connection being affected, in an environment which needs to encompass both creatives' work and private lives? Are people who face this situation working well creatively? Drawing on similar questions, I developed these research questions:
2.2 The research questions
RQ1: How do the creatives handle the change from their regular work and leisure environment to the digitally connected yet socially isolated spaces at home?
RQ2: What role does the presence and absence of media have in reconstructing the creatives' work and leisure environment at home?
RQ3: Do the creatives notice any impact on their creative processes caused by the changed situation in their digitally connected yet socially isolated homes?
This thesis is structured in such a way so as the Literature review is first discussing the topic of interest from a broader and more diverse perspective. It is followed by the Theoretical context where theories and texts related specifically to my thesis and aim are described. The section Material and methods further describes the materials studied and the methods used for gathering them. The section Results and Analysis discusses the empirical material and relates it to the introduced theories. The final part consists of a Conclusion which summarizes the analysis, and aims to answer the research questions in correlation with the objective with this thesis.
8 3. Literature review
This chapter puts the thesis into relation with previous research on related topics and introduces suitable concepts for it.
3.1 Literature on digital connection
The internet and digital connection are great technologies in times like these as they allow many people to work from home and to secure income. Without internet and digital technologies, the impact of this crisis on livelihoods would be imaginably much greater. Digital connection is the glue that makes larger social gatherings, work and forms of entertainment possible. However, they also create very special environments (not only) at home when in order to work, one has to plug-in, therefore literature around impacts of digital connection on people is of relevance.
When writing about digital connectivity and its impacts, José van Dijck and her work should be introduced. José van Dijck is a professor of Comparative Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She focuses her work on media technologies, social media, media theory, and technology communication. According to her, social media work with the normative values people cherish, particularly of belonging and of being liked (van Dijck, 2015, p. 173) and they are important to research in order to understand the 'normative systems underpinning the platform connectivity'.
In her book The Culture of Connectivity (2015) she draws on an example of the Alvin family and their frequent interactions with social media, which could be described as a family of “netizens” (p.1). This book is an attempt to comprehend the history of quickly evolving social media which she argues for calling “connective media” instead. She combined two approaches: a political economy perspective and actor-network theory to analyse social media. She was also interested in how the technological infrastructure “shape the performance of social acts instead of merely facilitating them” (p. 29).
9 Her “disassemble platforms and reassemble sociality” (van Dijck, 2015, p. 24) which refers to “reassemble the social” by Bruno Latour (2005) is speaking of analysing those normative systems and reshaping them from connectivity to connectedness. With this book she explains that connectivity follows a longer historical trend towards re-shifting boundaries between private, corporate and public domains (p.12). Here I would argue, that the 'work domain' should be included as well.
Connection is also a theme emerging in Sherry Turkle's Always-on/Always-on-you: The Tethered Self (2008). Although this connection lies rather between humans and their devices in the embodiment and disembodiment of people and digital technologies, where technologies (most often cell phones) are an always available medium through which other people can contact the owners of those devices (2008, p. 122). Similarly, to Moores (2012), Turkle (2008) writes about people consumed by digital technologies, but her definition is closer to Meyrowitz (1985) when she calls their lack of focus in the real world as a 'tethered state'. Furthermore, Turkle is (similarly to van Dijck) interested in the blurring boundaries between leisure and work and its harder separation together with difficulties of detaching oneself from work. Moreover, according to Turkle (2008), blurring work and leisure is not a trait to be celebrated but instead to be worried by its negative impacts on humans (Clark 2000, Desrochers and Sargent 2003; Shumate and Fulk, 2004). As stated in Turkle (2008), digital technologies undermine the traditional rituals of separation, therefore in response to that, a push back comes as people need places to hide from their technology rich environments (2008, p.131).
Turkle (2008) concludes her book with a reflection on “relational artefacts” which are technological objects designed for stimulating emotions in people (e.g. Paro, the robot seal). She writes “It is not exact to think of people as tethered to their devices. People are tethered to the gratifications offered by their online selves.” (2008, p. 125). Devices such as these relational artefacts can be then very helpful in securing social gratification in their users in otherwise socially isolated environments.
Moreover, Miller's (2008) view on digital communication is that in modern media, the social (networking) function is the most important aspect of communication rather than content/dialogue. He demonstrates this idea on sites such as twitter or microblogs that have limited word count integrated and are fuelled by individualization. Miller clarifies
10 individualization as the drive to “actively construct their own biographies and social bonds” (2008, p. 388). He refers to the style of communication with frequent but poorer content as phatic communication. However, he argues that sociologically the meaning of such communication goes beyond content.
Miller (2008) concludes his article with shining light on the problem that having a phatic material is ideal for data mining and the big corporations are profiting by user generated data which, when phatic, can be easily commodified. With possibly increased digital activity this topic is of a high relevance. In van Dijck's (2013) terms, Miller would argue that what we can often see in digital behaviour is that digital 'connectivity' is more important than human 'connectedness'.
A similar notion can be found in Portwood-Stacer (2012) who writes about connectivity in combination with the issue of productivity. According to her, online activity supports production and labour of aspects which were supposed to be reserved for leisure and not be exploited. “[...] the issue of productivity is complicated by a political economy driven by user generated content, immaterial labor, unceasing surveillance by both corporations and the state, and (if we’re feeling optimistic) participatory democracy through media channels. Being “more productive” while offline, then, may actually simultaneously entail becoming less productive in the new ways that productivity has come to be defined for today’s media-using citizens.” (Portwood-Stacer, 2012)
Besides having direct impact on people's behaviour, media also influence the sense of understanding places. Seeing the situation more positively than Joshua Meyrowitz (1985) who criticised the 'placelessness’ of social and intimate events transformed onto digital platforms, Shaun Moores (2012) argues that rather than being ‘placeless’ and isolated, people can experience new ways of being social by engaging with digital technologies and actually uses a term by by Paddy Scannell (1996) as ‘doubling of space’.
However, this doesn't always need to be positive. The doubling of space media can also be connected to space which was reserved for relaxation. Moores is writing about the familiarity when using media. According to him, the physical location doesn’t matter as media can create a feeling of familiarity (such as lonely teenager on a school trip with his new school
11 can still chat online with his friends from old school, thus have a sense of familiarity in a new environment). However, perhaps this can go the other way too as illustrated in this quote from the BBC article: “It doesn't matter whether you call it a virtual happy hour, it's a meeting, because mostly we are used to using these tools for work.” (Petriglieri in Jiang, 2020). If media, that are usually used for work (such as computer/zoom/skype) are then used for non-work related communication, they perhaps can be doubling the space of work in the leisure space.
Omitting completely the separation between media and non-media, digitally plugged-in and out life, Deuze's (2012) main theme in Media Life is about understanding modern digital media around us as living in the media. Media, according to Deuze is everything that amplifies or structures communication between people thus it can be many things. Furthermore, Deuze is interested in how we can use media to become more real or more aware of ourselves. Deuze writes about the notion that media is everywhere so it became 'invisible', as invisible as the water is to fish, which is a problem when people try to criticise it.
Moreover, digital connection can take on many forms and as such brings along advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, several scholars (Liapis et al., n.d.) from Digital Games and Computer Science were interested in the crossroad between computers and humans collaborating on creative works. They argued that the computer acts as an external stimulus, thus often is beneficial for the creative process. Not only do they suggest that humans can gain new perspectives but that the computers also learn from the interaction, giving more relevant suggestions over time. A real life example of a quote attributed to McLuhan and noted by Culkin “we shape our tools and our tools thereafter shape us” (Culkin, 1967, p. 70).
On the other hand, novelist Jonathan Safran Foer (2013) offered a more critical view when writing that new media is offering a less personal form of communication which offers us to “hide behind” certain levels of intimacy, keeping people in a comfort zone of no deep interaction. As he wrote “The problem with accepting — with preferring — diminished substitutes is that over time, we, too, become diminished substitutes. People who become used to saying little become used to feeling little.” (Foer, 2013) which is not an ideal state of mind for creatives.
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Furthermore, contemporary media have loosened up our former “natural” relation to, and ties between, time and space (McLuhan 1964/2003, Meyrowitz 1985). In the media world the sun doesn't go down, it is a place of eternal activity and thus for those who want to “stay up”, the darkness won't be the problem. On the same note, there is the matter with space. Communication with people on the other side of the globe is also possible (although here might be the tie with time of relevance) and often when “speaking” with people, we don't even have to be aware of their geographical whereabouts, as if location became less relevant.
3.2 Literature on digital disconnection
Every trend has a counter trend and that is why when talking about digital connection, digital disconnection should be mentioned as well because understanding one term might help understanding the other.
Digital disconnection and its nuances have a large terminology through academia. Although similar, the terminology has slight differences which Hesselberth (2018) suggests to distinguish. While media refusal, media resistance and media push-back include negative actions and a “refusal to accept the way media operate and evolve” (Syvertsen,2017, p. 9), they don't require wholesome rejection of the media technologies (Portwood-Stacer, 2012), for example, Strömbäck, Djerf-Pierre, and Shehata (2013) exclusively focus on the non-use of certain content (such as news).
Media resistance has collective components unlike the media non-use, which is an individual action where participants intentionally and significantly limit their media use (Woodstock,2014, p. 1983) and which is related to the field of audience and reception studies (Hesselberth, 2018). On the other hand, media disruption discourses focus on strategies to shake-up hegemonic conceptualizations of media ecologies (Hesselberth,2018).
Interestingly, digital disconnection has often a religious connection in its name such as 'fasts', 'lents' and 'Shabbats' (Portwood-Stacer, 2012). Furthermore, there is also a food metaphor (Sutton, 2017) using 'diet', 'menu', 'daily doses' and so forward. Additionally, to the terminology, the term 'unplugging' (Turkle, 2008) is also common. The terms 'unplugging'
13 and 'digital disconnection' will be the two mostly used concepts in this thesis in relation to this topic and they will be used interchangeably.
When writing about disconnection, it is important to see the reasons why did people choose to do so. The reasons for people to unplug or disconnect are usually several. In the work of Booth (2015), people in question described feeling “overwhelmed” by digital technology. In Agosto et al. (2016) the interviewees described being distracted by their devices when socialising with others. Furthermore, several people pointed out feelings of being burnt out from “an ever-accelerating conveyor belt of content” (Haber, 2013). Miksch and Schultz (2018) identified the reasons for digital detox as: 'keeping self-control', 'increasing performance', 'improving the well-being', 'being in the moment' and 'maintaining real-life relationships'. Similarly, Brubaker et al. (2016, p.383) who was writing about people leaving Grindr, a dating app for homosexuals, discovered reasons for leaving certain media 'in regaining time' and 'eliminating distractions' while for others it had more complex effects.
There have been many works written around people who chose to disconnect from certain media (Brubaker et al, 2016; Kaun and Schwarzenegger 2014; Marwick, 2013; Portwood- Stacer, 2013) permanently or for some period of time (Brubaker et al. 2016; Light and Cassidy, 2014). For example, Kaun and Treré (2018) write about media refusal as a part of a social activism that might not be directly connected to media as objects. Although the reasons and motivations behind these actions differ, what remains however similar is the individual, self-regulating nature of these actions.
Self-regulation is playing a big role in the digital unplugging practices, as in the default setting, being plugged into digital devices is easier. As Syvertsen and Enli (2019, p.1) put it “[...] digital detox texts illuminate the rise of a self-regulation society, where individuals are expected to take personal responsibility for balancing risks and pressures, as well as representing a form of commodification of authenticity and nostalgia.”
Even though disconnection (and self-regulation) is mostly an individual choice (Fish, 2017, Portwood-Stacer, 2012, Syvertsen and Enli, 2019), some countries want to put the pressure of being available to the employer outside of working hours out of the hands of individual responsibility.
14 This topic is discussed on a political level, for example, in France where the labour law in 2016 included a 'right to disconnect' from work email during evenings and weekends (“French Get Right to Avoid Work Emails,” 2016). Similarly, Germany made certain steps towards limiting work-related digital stress (Kaun and Treré, 2018). On the corporal level, some big corporations, including BMW, Daimler and others introduced regulations of work- related tasks after working hours (Hesselberth,2018). We might possibly see more of this in the future as setting up boundaries for themselves is a hard task for many and the well-being of their employees is an important goal employers want to achieve in the long run (Fish, 2017, p.362).
Furthermore, when compiling literature for the previous direction of this thesis, a lot of literature on digital detoxes was collected. With the high saturation of digital presence many people witness in this new situation, it is interesting to read what many digital detox organizers were promising their participants, what were the reasons for people to disconnect or who participated in them (some of these topics are further discussed in the Theoretical context).
Ironically many people from digital giants such as Google, Twitter or Facebook attend digital retreats (comprising usually of few days in the nature, devoid of all modern technologies and work-talk) to deepen “interpersonal connection, a reverence for nature, and a celebration of direct experience” (Fish, 2017, p.357). With the use of terminology by van Dijck (2013) it can be said that the same people who promote 'digital connectivity' are those who cherish real life 'connectedness'. Moreover, the following quote illustrates the overall mind-set of the people coming in to digital detox camps: The participants in media retreats have problematised the role of technologies in their everyday lives. They come to the redwood forests of California somewhat disillusioned by the promise that new technologies and new working environments make digital labour less alienating. Through networked productivity, labour was supposed to be more humane, participatory, liberating, democratic, and inclusive. (Fish, 2017, p.362)
For example, one digital retreat camp proclaimed that certain habits around digital usage are 'bringing balance back to your everyday life' (Fish, 2017, p. 360). Furthermore, the founder of one such a camp claimed that the time not spent on social media can be used for something
15 more fulfilling as shown in a quote by Fish (2017) “A founder of Camp Grounded claims that time spent on social media is time not spent on analogue creativity, in-person connection, traditional arts, and oceanic experiences within nature” (p.360)
The following section departs from the dichotomy between connection and disconnection and rather focuses on the boundaries created for different purposes.
3.3 Boundaries and regions for different behaviours
The role of spaces (regions) and human behaviour was an interest for several scholars. Among those we can count Erving Goffman, Sherry Turkle (2008), Stina Bengtsson (2006) Christena Nippert-Eng, (1996) and others.
Erving Goffman was an American sociologist whose work centred around the notion of people's lives being constructed by combinations of ritual states (routines). He was interested in the social interactions, construction and framing which affects the behaviour of people's everyday life.
Stina Bengtsson, a professor at Södertörn University in the Media and Communication Department, built her article “Symbolic Spaces of Everyday Life, Work and Leisure at Home” (2006) upon the work of Erving Goffman, but as his work was conducted in times where media was less present in everyday life, she reformed parts of it.
The core interest of her article lies in the ritual states which are constituting our everyday lives and the role of media in co-creating them. The following is Bengtsson's (2006) definition of ritual states: A temporal ritual state is a condition in which we allow ourselves to act and perform in a particular way, where a performance should be understood as the way in which we present ourselves to others (and at the same time to ourselves) within the frames of our everyday life. (2006, p. 120)
16 As a method, she used a thick description of participants, where she interviewed and observed participants in their work/home environments. Her work was an important early effort in times of the shift in the organization of labour.
Blurring boundaries of different social environments, often possible thanks to digital technologies (Woodstock (2014, p.1991), was present also prior to the situation imposed by COVID-19. Miksch and Schulz (2018) argued that the professional, the private and the social environment cannot be separated as they all affect each other. However, this statement goes against the self-complexity theory (Linville, 1985) which assumes that multiple contexts for variety of social interactions and happenings are healthy for individuals. In other words, the self-complexity theory (Linville, 1985) highlights the importance of segmenting boundaries between different ritual states such as work, relaxation or a birthday celebration.
It is possible that the lack of these boundaries or its integration has negative impacts on the people, which can result in burnouts or mental problems. Sadly, according to Bruce (2019) “[...] the burnout epidemic is a clear and growing threat.” This is reminding of an excerpt from the French law concerning (besides others) the right to disconnect cited by Collins (2016) “The development of information and communication technologies, if badly managed or regulated, can have an impact on the health of workers.... Among them, the burden of work and the informational overburden, [and] the blurring of the borders between private life and professional life…”
A similar notion was described in an article by the BBC (Jiang, 2020). The article was based on an interview with Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor at Insead, who explores sustainable learning and development in the workplace, and Marissa Shuffler, an associate professor at Clemson University, who studies workplace wellbeing and teamwork effectiveness. The article was about why many people find leisure Zoom meetings tiring even though they should provide socialisation and joy. The possible reason might be that many people might feel overwhelmed by the use of media, because using the same tools for work, leisure or socialising feels for many as work even though they are not paid for it.
17 3.4 Literature on creative Industries
This thesis is centred around exploring views and behaviours of people working within the creative industries, thus this term requires further explanation: what is it, which industries it refers to, and what different terminologies are used when describing it. Building on the influential mapping and measurement exercise undertaken by the UK New Labour government of Tony Blair in 1997 in a document called Creative Industries Task Force Mapping Document, researchers, policy makers and practitioners considered sectors such as advertising, architecture, art and antiques, computer games, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video, music, performing arts, publishing, software, TV and radio as belonging to creative industries (DCMS, 2001).
This categorization stayed and reached other countries, even after the rule of the Labour party ended (Flew, 2012). Cunningham and Flew (2019) add that even after more than 20 years have passed since the formulation of the original document, its core, although challenged, remains largely intact. The objective of the New Labour document's updated categorization was to rekindle growth and prosperity in places that faced decline of traditional manufacturing industries. Hesmondhalgh (2017) notes that in a capitalistic society there is an interest of strengthening creative/cultural industries for their economical contribution rather than for well-being, or other non-economic goals.
The Creative Industries Task Force Mapping Document describes jobs falling under the “creative industry” as “those (...) which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through generation and exploitation of intellectual property.” (DCMS, 2001).
Despite the overall agreement, some scholars tried to organize the creative industries differently internally. For example, Throsby (2001) suggests to reorganize them into: [...]‘core creative arts’ such as literature, music or performing arts, other ‘core cultural industries’ such as film, museums or photography, ‘wider cultural industries’ such as publishing, television or video/computer games and, finally, ‘related industries’ such as advertising, architecture or design. (in Mangematin et al., 2014, p.6)
18 Thus even though there is a consensus of what creative industries are, the position of importance within them differs. The organization above is clearly putting the “traditional” cultural occupations on top of the imaginary hierarchical pyramid and putting advertising on the bottom. On the contrary, Hesmondhalgh (2013) argues that only industries that create texts/cultural artefacts and participate in some level of reproduction (advertising, broadcasting, film, music, publishing and computer games) should be considered the ‘core cultural industries’.
3.4.1 Creative or cultural industries?
Some scholars according to Mangematin et al., (2014, p.6) have criticised this neoliberalist approach to the industrialising production that has put Adorno and Horkheimer's term 'cultural industries' at the use of a national agenda. Yet to have an overview of this problematic, what is the difference between creative and cultural industries?
‘Cultural industries’ is a term coined by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in 1948. This term is also used by David Hesmondhalgh (2013) who draws his definition of cultural industries on firmly defining the term “culture” first. He bases that on Raymond Williams' definition of culture as a 'signifying system'. Hesmondhalgh (2013) builds on that notion and argues that as such, cultural industries are involved in the production of social meaning through industrial production and circulation of texts (2013, p. 16). Moreover, he notes that cultural industries are “often referred to interchangeably with the ‘media industries’” (2013, p.23).
The following are the core cultural industries according to Hesmondhalgh (2013): broadcasting, film, music, print and electronic publishing, video games, web design, marketing and advertising. Furthermore, he defines 'peripheral' cultural industries which are involved in the reproduction of symbols with mainly semi-industrial or non-industrial methods, thus the volume of audience/impact reach is much smaller. Such industries are for example theatre or broad visual art.
Creative industries encompass a wide range of notions which was one of the goals of the New Labour party when creating the document, to eliminate the high/low distinctions and support the whole spectre of creative industries. However, according to Hesmondhalgh (2017) the flat
19 hierarchy among the different creative industries was creating clashing problems by ignoring differences of class society. Often other terms are being used which Hesmondhalgh (2013, p. 23) acknowledges and suggests the following alternative terminology:
a) 'Creative industries': Most often used interchangeably but with slight differences which are further discussed below this paragraph. b) ‘Media industries’: “The cultural industries are often referred to interchangeably with the ‘media industries’ [...] But the concept of media is not without its problems of definition either.” c) 'Information industries’: Which include also “[...] the telecommunications, internet, and information and communication technology (ICT) sectors.” d) The Leisure Industries: Including also “[...] sport and tourism alongside what I am calling the cultural industries here.”
Hesmondhalgh (2013) argues that the biggest difference between cultural and creative industries is, that the creative industries are centred around the 'artist' notion of subsidy while cultural industries are centred around the audience-oriented vision. (p.145)
Drawing on the above differences and accounting for my own purposes (being oriented more on the “producers” and their creativity), the term creative industries is more fitting. For a different purpose, such as studying audiences, I would argue for the ‘cultural industries’ term.
3.5 Literature on creativity and creative processes
Creativity, as another key term in this thesis, is connected to creative industries. It is an important term to understand further as its meaning has changed over time. The definition of creativity as understood in this thesis is further discussed in the Theoretical context.
Is creativity solely reserved for humans? Boden (2004) doesn't think so and she points out three kinds of creativity that can be simulated by computers: combinative creativity, explorative creativity and transformational creativity. However, I will focus on human creativity with its implications instead because this thesis is interested in the views of people.
20
As such, creativity as a field is mostly rooted in social psychology but it has applications in a number of areas, such as business or education (Amabile and Pillemer, 2012, p.3). During the last century, creativity as a term also underwent a transformation. Describing the consensus of the literature from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Amabile and Pillemer (2012, p.3) wrote the following: Creativity is a quality of the person; most people lack that quality; people who possess the quality––geniuses––are different from everyone else, in talent and personality; we must identify, nurture, appreciate, and protect the creatives among us—but, aside from that, there isn’t much we can do. which is not what the majority of scholars in psychology agree with today.
Although the majority opinion was that creativity is a character trait, it doesn't mean that no other opinions on that matter could be found. Amabile and Pillemer (2012, p.4) wrote about the earlier currents of studying creativity, that unlike the mainstream in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, described creativity as a skill rather than a trait that might be “taught, learned, practiced, and improved” (2012, p.4) and are more in agreement with today's understanding of creativity.
Later on in their work, Amabile and Pratt (2016) defined creativity as the production of novel and useful ideas while innovation is the implementation of creativity. Mumford (2003) described that views on creativity has reached a general consensus as “creativity involves the production of novel, useful products" (p. 110). However, a few questions remain, such as “useful for whom?” or “who decides?”. These seem to be answered in the definition by Csikszentmihalyi (1997, p.6) where he describes creativity as: “A system – composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the domain, and a field of experts who recognize and validate the innovation.” where creative products are useful in the domain which “consists of a set of symbolic rules and procedures” (Csikszentmihalyi 1996, p. 27) and whether they are creative is decided by the field of experts.
21 In the creative industry, the process of coming up with new ideas often comes from placing an idea into another environment, combining several ideas or less often inventing something completely new (Velikovsky, 2012). Additionally, as Csikszentmihalyi (1999, p.315) suggests, “For creativity to occur, a set of rules and practices must be transmitted from the domain to the individual. The individual must then produce a novel variation in the content of the domain. The variation then must be selected by the field for inclusion in the domain”. Furthermore, Zhou (2003) suggested that creativity at the 'regular' workplace is influenced by the level of supervision and creativity of co-workers but its impacts are lowered by having a creative personality. This notion is further developed by Mumford and Simonton (1997, p.5) who write that the levels of creativity are influenced by environmental factors, such as the “climate, culture, and structure” of companies.
Moreover, creativity has different names throughout academia with similar meanings, such as divergent thinking (Areeba et al., 2019), flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008) innovation (Amabile and Pillemer, 2012) or fluid intelligence (Silvia and Beaty, 2012) and is often connected to the well-being or flourishing (Hesmondhalgh, 2017) of a person. It is mostly researched in psychology studies, however as it is connected to many creative industries that work with media, I would argue that Media and Communication studies should not be oblivious of this concept.
Even though creativity is a hard-to-grasp notion and thus hard to measure, there are ways to do so. One of those ways is the Torrance test of creative thinking (TTCT) which was developed by Ellis Paul Torrance in 1966 and re-worked several times after that. This test, however, again assumes the skilled individual that needs to be discovered and nurtured to access his/her own full potential. These tests work with operationalization which is a process to define a phenomenon that is otherwise hard to measure (such as creativity). The phenomenon is then broken into smaller components which are measurable and are in correlation to the phenomenon of interest. This process then enables to translate the results into empirical data which are measurable and comparable. Due to the reason that tests like TTCT are a bit out of my direction of study or expertise, and as my intention is to purely have the creatives to reflect on their self-perceived creativity, this test will not be used for data collection in this thesis.
22 From the literature review, the most relevant concepts for my thesis are concepts of connectivity and connectedness, boundaries and regions, transformation between ritual states, reasons to disconnect from media and influences on creativity, which are all further discussed in the theoretical context.
23 4. Theoretical context
This section presents the theoretical context of the study. The theoretical framework will be useful when analysing and understanding the results of the research. A list of theoretical concepts is included in the Appendix 3 for a better overview.
The first theoretical framework discusses the Connectivity versus connectedness which is relevant in times where most private and professional communication happens in the digital world. Thus, it sparks questions on what personal aspects are missed or are better in the digital environment. The boundaries and regions are important to study in an environment where different ritual states (and regions) happen in a condensed space, sparking questions like: How do people cope with this transition? What problems and advantages are sprouting from it? Furthermore, transformation between ritual states is concerned with a similar question, but it also encompasses the tools used for achieving it. Disconnection from media is interesting to look at in order to understand why people chose to disconnect and whether similar reasons are still relevant. Lastly the influences on creativity are relevant to understand as the environment for the creatives changed greatly, but has their creativity been influenced as well?
These theoretical concepts are further explored in the following chapters.
4.1 Connectivity versus connectedness
Contemporary times have their own specifics in comparison to the older literature. Among implications and possibilities of the modern era we could count the multifunctionality of media, which can encompass work, leisure and social life within one medium.
Moreover, as most activities are condensed at home and larger social events are in many countries discouraged, many social activities are happening in the online space including meetups with friends/family, cultural happenings or sport activities.
Here van Dijck (2015) theorizes whether digital connectivity is different from the social value of connectedness. She argues that connectivity refers to automated forms of
24 connections that are engineered and manipulated while connectedness is what humans aspire for in interacting with social media (p. 12), According to van Dijck (2015), some social media can encompass both connectedness and connectivity which will be the main point taken from van Dijck's work in connection to this thesis.
4.1.1 Isolation
Moreover, this thesis wonders whether mediated connections suppress or support the feeling of isolation. With regard to RQ1, I am interested in comparing the current and earlier work environment, and the overall impact in terms of both private feelings of isolation as well as feelings of isolation from the employer due to the remote style of work. Here, I will use a notion of isolation developed by Bob Blauner (1964), drawing mostly on the work of Karl Marx (1867) and his concepts of alienation of workers. In his work, Alienation and Freedom (1964, p.16) Blauner presents four types of alienation: powerlessness, isolation, meaninglessness and self-estrangement. With regard to my work, I am interested in the isolation part which he defines as “[...] the worker feels no sense of belonging in the work situation or is unable to identify or uninterested in identifying with the organization and its goals.” (1964, p.24). Thus it will be interesting whether people who are socially isolated, but are connected through digital technologies feel this kind of isolation with their work.
4.2 Front region and back region
As the Research question one deals with the handling of the change into a WFH environment which became socially isolated but digitally connected, it makes the theory on the division between work and leisure an important one. Division between different aspects of life has been of interest for sociologists for a long time, however the contemporary time has its own unique implications and possibilities.
'Front region' and 'back region' (used also as 'front stage' and 'back stage') are terms used by Erving Goffman in describing the division between different presentations of oneself in a theatrical metaphor. According to Goffman (1959) we change behaviour that is seen as
25 appropriate according to the situation in the given ritual states like work, leisure or play (p.24), and which is contained in a certain 'region'.
The definition of region according to Goffman (1959) is: [...] any place that is bounded to some degree by barriers to perception. Regions vary, of course, in the degree to which they are bounded and according to the media of communication in which the barriers to perception occur. Thus thick glass panels, such as are found in broadcasting control rooms, can isolate a region aurally but not visually, while an office bounded by beaver-board partitions is closed off in the opposite way. (p.106)
The most relevant theory in connection to my work lies in his division between two 'stages' or 'regions', where actors (people) perform differently. On one hand, there is the 'front region' (Goffman, 1956, p.69) which refers to the public performance where people act in accordance to how they want to be seen in front of a certain audience. On the other hand, there is the 'back region' which refers to more private, relaxing time, where the performance is not meant to be seen by an audience and where the “performer can relax, he can drop his front, forgo speaking his lines, and step out of character” (Goffman, 1959, p. 115). Furthermore, Goffman (1956) writes about 'backstage control' which describes the difficulties of clashing both regions (e.g. toilet break at work) or entering from one to another, as he puts it “putting on and taking off of character” (p. 74).
Moreover, keying (Goffman, 1974, p. 40-83) is a change in the ritual state (activity) which can be very subtle but bears a large meaning to the context. At home, in an often condensed amount of space, people need to shift between work, leisure, social and private environments.
He argues that in most houses, there is an exterior distinction between different regions. However, that was written in different socio-economic and technical times as we can see from his note on communication through telephones as a “‘marginal’ way to interact socially” (Goffman, 1971, p. 70).
In light of the present situation of social distancing combined with WFH one wonders whether there is any impact felt by the creatives when the front and back region happens in
26 the same environment. Moreover, back region was formerly understood as a place where the individual could rest, away from work. But due to the omnipresence of media, back region can be penetrated by work, disrupting its leisure nature. Goffman's work then provides a great framework when using relevant aspects from his work which can be updated in today's environment.
Stina Bengtsson (2006), building on the work of Erving Goffman was interested in the role of media in relation to WFH and how people separated their work and leisure thanks to the use of media. She is drawing on the post-industrial change of work dynamics where people can work from home.
Since work from home, as studied by Bengtsson, was often blurring the private and the public, and the back and the front regions, Bengtsson (2006) asked in her article “What kinds of frames do we construct for ourselves? And how do we organize space when no one can see us?” (p.123). I would like to build on that with the given situation of a changed environment of most people in connection to COVID-19 from workplace to home. The main difference from Bengtsson's work (2006) is in an exploration of a state where the setting of the back and front region is constantly the same and only subtle changes to the environment can be made.
Right now WFH is quite well established, however, with COVID-19, practically everyone (not only) within the creative industry is having the experience of working from home for a certain period of time.
4.3 Boundary theory
When speaking of the shift between different regions, boundary theory should be mentioned as well. Boundary theory is described by Nippert-Eng (1996, p. 563) as mentally categorizing life into different spheres. As such it is very similar to the notion of regions/frames described both by Goffman and Bengtsson. For example, Goffman (1959, p.1106) wrote that region is “bounded to some degree by barriers to perception” and while he was mostly interested in the performances, boundary theory is interested in the barriers and its influences.
27 This theory also speaks about different roles of the people depending on in which socially constructed spheres they are at (e.g. work, home, school). The possibility of divergence between different roles can be explained in segmentation and integration of the boundaries (Nippert-Eng 1996, 567-568). The integration is having more flexible and thinner separation (e.g. reading work emails while having a family dinner) while the segmentation is setting the boundaries firmly apart and devotes different activities to certain settings (e.g. work only during working hours).
There are three different types of boundaries, namely physical, temporal and psychological (Ashforth et al. 2000, p. 478- 79; Clark 2000, p. 753). Physical boundary is concerning the actual, physical space (e.g. the office building as the symbol for work). Temporal boundary has to do with time frame (e.g. work from 9-5) while the psychological (or mental) boundary is concerning the fact that the individual chooses to be mentally concentrating on desired task. The last form of boundary can be thought of as mentally avoiding non-work related tasks during office hours and vice versa.
Similarly to the backstage control, permeability in the boundary theory describes the clashing problems of intertwining different boundaries (Clark 2000, p. 756).
4.4 Transformations between regions
In the home environments, people need to structure their work, leisure and social lives (different regions) and perhaps use media and their lack of as framing devices (Bengtsson, 2006). Even before social distancing, young adults considered the professional life as the online, connected life, while the private life was associated with the possibility of being offline (Miksch and Schulz, 2018). With the high saturation of digital connections in these times it will be interesting to see what attitudes the creatives hold towards it in connection to separating their work/leisure time and their self-perceived creativity. This interest is reflected in Research question two, which asks what is the role of presence and absence of media in reconstructing and dividing home environments.
28 This thesis builds on the following theoretical framework suggested by Bengtsson (2006). According to her, the mental aspect is core to the frames and symbolic rooms they create. There are three dimensions to the transformation of spaces (2006, p. 126-128): The first is the geographic dimension (e.g. interiors, similar to the 'physical boundary' in the boundary theory), the second is the intermedia dimension (changing of media as symbolic signs) and the third is the intramedia dimension (changing channels within the same medium).
Furthermore, in her article, Bengtsson introduced an interesting notion by Stockfelt (1988) describing that music can create different kinds of exclusivity (e.g. certain music targeted to people in order to communicate who is welcome and who isn't). I wonder then whether people use music as a tool for 'keying' from one ritual state to another or even changing the regions.
4.5 Disconnection from media
To see why practices of digital disconnection, media resistance or digital detox camps are relevant, it is important to see what were the reasons for participants to disconnect from media or join a digital retreat, and what might still be appealing to people in this new situation.
Among reasons for 'media resistance', Woodstock (2014) found reasons such as 'regaining control', 'establishing boundaries', 'resisting information overload', and 'establishing greater personal life balance'. According to Woodstock (2014) media resisters have several reasons for their action including “(a) asserting boundaries between public and private life, (b) acting on concerns that technologies designed to facilitate human connection often undermine it, and (c) focusing on immediate experiences and thereby cultivating presence.” (p.1983).
These categories might be helpful in combination with understanding the differences between connectivity and connectedness together with the analysis of the interviews.
29 Touching on the interest seen also in Research question two, Sherry Turkle (2008) writes that down time is a time for people's mind to drift off (waiting in line, walking to the metro etc.) and is psychologically important to calibrate and refocus (Herzog et al. 1995, Kaplan 1997 in Turkle, 2008, p. 129). This was visible on some of her respondents who complained about struggling to have time to think.
When Turkle discussed conclusions from her interviews she wrote that for people to regain time, they need to unplug (2008, p.132), which she argues is not easy as the technologies to unplug from became extensions of our minds and bodies and being online is often part of some “social contract” which requires availability and responsibility.
The interviews I conducted 12 years after Turkle's work will show whether these participants share those standpoints towards unplugging and relaxing from work when the situation changed and when in order for many to be socially connected they need to also connect digitally.
4.6 Creativity
Writing about creativity and trying to have people to reflect on it is a very tricky task. Even though there is a standardized concept of what creativity is, people, including the interviewees, have different concepts of what creativity and being creative means. Or as McIntyre puts it “Creativity is not what most people think it is.” (2012, p. 3). Creativity is a matter of interest in Research question three, thus having a theoretical concept of it will be useful for understanding the nature of creativity and the influences on it.
4.6.1 Definition of creativity
Many people would probably agree that creativity is a mysterious thing (Boden, 2004). Ideas appear often out of “nowhere”, in sleep, in the shower or in the bus when the mind drifts off. But just to “receive” an idea doesn't mean it is creative. Boden (2004) makes a difference between two kinds of creativity, “P” standing for the “psychological creativity” which means, coming up with ideas new to us, but perhaps not novel to the world and “H” standing for
30 “historical creativity” which is the act of coming up with an idea for the first time in history. The second, “H” type often leads to innovation, which is putting creative ideas from a concept into a product.
This notion is developed by Velikovsky (2012) where he describes creativity as a larger spectrum. For a better illustration, a fictional character, architect Karel, will be used in the brackets. The spectrum ranges from an Everyday creativity which many people are/create on an everyday basis (e.g. Karel makes a new recipe), to Transformative creativity (e.g. Karel solves a problem with his creativity), to Professional creativity (e.g. Karel solves a problem within his architectural firm and gets appraisal), to Genius creativity (e.g. Karel helps to transform modern architecture thanks to his creativity), to Highly-Eminent Genius Creativity which refers to a very rare type of geniuses (that unfortunately Karel isn't but the representatives in his field are for example Le Corbusier, Zaha Hadid or Frank Gehry). In this thesis I will focus on the everyday and transformative creativity among the participants, as they are achievable, perhaps not reforming the world, but still important.
According to Mel Rhodes (1961) creativity can be studied in "the four Ps" — process, product, person, and place. Other scholars were building on these categories and adding a few, resulting in “the 7 Ps” which are according to Velikovsky (2012) the following: Person(ality), Process, Product, Place, Potential, Persuasion (belief of the field that the product/idea is creative) and Press (“various influences on the creative person’s behaviour”). As the aim is not to judge a final product and how creative it is, but rather to understand the self-perceived ease of creativity of the participants namely in the processes for coming up with creative ideas/products, I will focus on the levels of creativity affected by social isolation and digital connectivity in participants (referring to “person” in the four/seven Ps).
As discussed earlier, creativity has reached an academic consensus as “an idea or product that is original, valued and implemented” (as illustrated in Figure 1 by Csikszentmihalyi and Wolfe 2000, p. 81) although the wording can differ. Drawing on this definition in combination with the definition of
31 creative industries, we can see that not everyone who works in a creative industry is actually doing creative work. However, for the choice of participants I tried to select those individuals whose work is based on the individual's creativity which is in alignment with the definition in the New Labour document and thus assumes that the individuals do creative work of a certain spectrum (as described by Velikovsky, 2012) at some point in their work.
4.6.2 Influences on creativity
Grant and Berry (2011) note that the level of motivation is influencing the level of creativity as well. In addition, Amabile (2012, p 10) wrote that creativity is influenced, besides 'social environment' which is an external factor, mostly by internal factors such as 'domain-relevant skills', 'creativity-relevant processes' and 'intrinsic task motivation' which gives the work internal meaning in contrast to “pleasing others”. Drawing on these arguments, we can debate that having people working separately might influence some individuals more than others depending on their personality and skills.
To summarise, in this thesis I am interested in the people who develop (more or less) creative ideas through creative processes and self-assess any changes in their creativity on any level of the seven Ps in the new WFH situation.
32 5. Material and methods
This chapter focuses on the material and methods needed in order to extract valuable information for this thesis. The research design was mostly influenced by books by Klaus Bruhn Jensen (2002) and Michael Pickering (2008).
The research design was inspired by three features of preparation for research design that were first introduced by Raymond L. Gorden in 1969 and described in Jensen's book (2002, p.237): a) Strategy, a general plan for entering the social circle of interest. b) Tactics, definition of who are the respondents and what is the interaction with them. c) Techniques, concrete means of interaction and documentation with the participants.
All of the above are further described in the following chapter on interviews and were used as a framework to prepare for the interviews.
Furthermore, Jensen (2002) introduced six levels of empirical research “associated with different stages of planning, conducting, documenting, and interpreting an empirical project.” (p. 257- 258). These levels of empirical research were helpful in mapping out the process and gaining an overview which acted as a 'checklist' for this thesis.
The six levels of empirical research in my case are: 1. Empirical object of analysis: The creatives. 2. Data collection method: Interviews. 3. Data analysis method: Thematic coding, categorizing, segmenting, interpreting and comparing. 4. Methodology: Qualitative research. 5. Theoretical framework: Connectivity versus connectedness, Front region & back region, Boundary theory, Transformations between regions, Reasons to disconnect from media, Influences on creativity 6. Epistemology: Distinction between justified belief and opinion.
33 5.1 Interviews
The decision to choose a qualitative method stems from the aim of this thesis. The aim of qualitative research according to Jensen (2002, p.236) is to extract meaning in a naturalistic context and interpret it. The meaning in my case is the creatives' view on the impact of the situation and the naturalistic environment is their homes, which I would visit under normal circumstances (and given the participants would not have a problem with it). Furthermore, qualitative methods, such as interviews, are a great tool for gaining first-hand insights into participants’ worldviews, opinions and perspectives (Brinkmann and Kvale 2015, p. 33). The goal of interviews is to grasp knowledge “‘from within,’ in ‘emic’ terms” (Jensen, 2012, p. 264).
For the style of data collection, I chose a semi-structured interview, even though I am aware of the downsides of interviewing people, which Jensen (2002) acknowledged as “The difficulty, of course, [...] that people do not always say what they think, or mean what they say” (p.240). Yet it is still the most available mean of gaining a first-hand insight from people, or as Bower (1973 in Jensen, 2002, p.240) wrote “the best way to find out what the people think about something is to ask them”.
Furthermore, to have a conversation with people and tap into possibly more fruitful topics, the semi-structured interview offers this kind of flexibility (Ayres, 2008). Semi-structured interviews are a qualitative research method asking open-ended questions which are based on the research questions (Ayers, 2008) where the research participants are seen as active meaning makers (Pickering, 2008, p.70). Pickering (2008, p. 80) notes that semi-structured interviews have a list of topics to be covered with some more suggested topics. I prepared completely defined questions in case I would be nervous but I was aware of the flexibility the semi-structured interview offers and that the wording is extremely important in order to avoid leading questions (2008, p.81).
The interviews were conducted until a certain sense of saturation within the given time frame was achieved. However, saturation is a complex term to assess and can be influenced by several factors such as homogeneity of the group, complexity of the topic or complexity of the questions. Moreover, as I am not trying to achieve an applicable conclusion which could generalize the phenomena discovered within these interviews, but rather want to say
34 something about a group of professionals from the industry (Pickering, 2008, p.62), I was aiming for around ten to twelve interviews and conducted eleven of them. The interviews lasted for approximately 40 minutes. Five respondents were working in the Czech Republic and six in Sweden.
Furthermore, I gave each participant a distinctive code and colour (the codes and real names were kept on a separate, analogue paper for securing privacy). The codes and especially colours were very helpful for putting all the answers together while maintaining in mind which participant was which. This distinction helped with the analysis of the answers.
5.1.1 Interview style and setting (Strategy)
At first, a few pilot interviews were conducted as suggested by Pickering (2008, p.65) to see what is working and what is not. It is also good to test the flow of the questions, their understanding and the data taken out of them, whether they are relevant to the research questions and theories. As Jensen (2002, p. 257) puts it, pilot studies “[...] pre-test codes and, to a degree, develop theory.”. The pilot study respondents were two friends working within the creative industry who then referred more of their acquaintances for further interviews. These two respondents tested the flow and the overall understanding of the questions together with testing the technological equipment, recording and ability to make notes. Based on these two pilot interviews, a few adjustments to the formulation, and position of the questions were made as well as adding and cutting some questions out. Thus preparing and completing a few pilot interviews proved to be very effective.
The plan was to review the answers after each interview, assess them and search for possible interesting pathways that were unnoticed before (Pickering, 2008, p.67). However, since some interviews were scheduled right after each other due to the participants’ time availabilities, it was not done after each interview. The questions directed to the participants differ a lot from the research questions. For example, the Research question two is: What role does the presence and absence of media have in reconstructing the creatives' work and leisure environment at home? And the question asked in order to extract some valuable knowledge on the topic was: “What do you do when you want to shut off work completely?”. As demonstrated, there is no media mentioned in the question, however, formulated like this,
35 the participants reflected on their media usage in a better way than when I used something more direct like “What media do you use only for work?”.
The purpose of interview questions being to extract knowledge and make interviewees feel comfortable, the interview questions should be rather easy to understand and short, in order to gain valuable information (Pickering, 2008, p. 67). The complete interview guide can be found in the Appendix 1.
5.1.2 Choice of participants (Tactics)
To borrow the terminology of Jensen (2002), my participants are so called 'respondents' who should be representing the social category of 'creative workers'. These 'creative workers' corresponded to the definition of creative industries used in the DCMS document (2001, p.12). That is why 'purposive sampling' (Jensen, 2002, p.216) is used in order to ensure the respondent are fulfilling a certain set of criteria. Even though this term was used for quantitative research, it is relevant for interviews as well.
The respondents participating were people working within: architecture, art direction, communication design, copywriting, creative developing, film production, graphic design, illustration, innovation design, UX design, and visual design.
Geographically, I decided to include respondents both from Sweden and the Czech Republic. The reason is Sweden's special approach to dealing with the spread of COVID-19 which differs from other European countries (Henley, 2020). Moreover, I aimed to include both people working in Sweden and in the Czech Republic due to my professional and personal connections and the understanding of both cultures. This mix is thus logical and could be translated into mixing the 'purposive sampling' with 'convenience sampling', both falling under 'non probability sampling' whose participants are as Jensen describes “[...] selected for study on the grounds that they are available, convenient to access and prepared to participate.” (Jensen, 2002, p. 216).
Furthermore, in order to avoid bias in terms of age or sex, I aimed for the 'maximum variation' sample, which aimed to include 'as wide set of qualities' (Jensen, 2002. p. 238) as
36 possible, which in this case was especially age and household situation (living alone, with a partner, family with kids). However, due to the overruling 'convenience sampling' and my abilities to get people to participate, the majority of the respondents were people either living alone or with a partner and without kids. The average age of the participants was in their 30s.
In case the number of participants from Sweden and from the Czech Republic had not offered a sufficient amount of data, I would then have focused on internet based research with a broader international spectrum. However, this situation did not occur and participants from Sweden and the Czech Republic provided enough valuable data.
The presented table of participants shows the given code and certain data about the participants. The list shows their gender, household situation and the country of work. I decided not to include the profession in this list as with the other information it might be too revealing of the participants' identities.
Table 1: List of participants
Interviewee's Gender Household Country code situation of work
A male alone/partner CR
B female with partner SE
C female with partner CR
D female alone SE
E male with partner SE
F male with partner CR
G male with partner SE
H female alone SE
I female with partner CR
37 J male with partner CR
K female with partner SE
5.1.3 Practicalities (Technique)
As a primary source of information, in the given circumstances of avoiding as much physical contact as possible, I relied exclusively on video/audio interviews. Although computer- assisted interviews are not ideal, or as Brinkmann and Kvale (2015, 174-175) put it, “a problem with computer-assisted interviews is the difficulty to understand the body language and spoken language, some details of the conversation will be missed out.”. They also offer certain advantages, “On the other hand, it is shown that computer-assisted interviews make the participant keener to openly talk about intimate topics.” (Brinkmann and Kvale 2015, p. 175). Similarly, the computer assisted interviews I collected offered certain benefits and disadvantages. Among the benefits we can count non-existent need for travelling and less restraint on the geographical locations of the interviewees. On the other hand, one disadvantage is that computer interviews are usually shorter than face to face interviews (Robson, 2011, p. 290).
Personally, I didn't have a problem with the fact that the interviews were being held online. If anything, it added to my feelings of comfort and less stress which perhaps helped to navigate through the interviews in a better way than if they would have been held in person. Furthermore, I am assuming that participants who were willing to participate in an online interview wouldn't be as willing to invite me over and have a physical interview, but this notion is purely speculative.
An important note to add is that the participants A and B were pilot interviews which were not recorded due to a technical problem but descriptive notes were taken during the interviews. Both interviews acted as trials for analysing the participants understanding of the questions, the time spent on the interviews and the overall process.
38 I left the choice of the platform up to the interviewees' preferences, but most often we conducted them through Zoom or Google Hangouts.
5.1.4 Informed Consent
To follow the ethical guidelines of Södertörn University, the participants were asked to fill out a consent form after reading the Information letter to make them fully aware of the aim of the research project and their rights as the participants. Both, the informed consent form and the Information letter are included in the Appendix 2. The contact details for the student and the supervisor, which were included in the original forms, were removed from this copy which is designed for filing.
5.1.5 Qualitative analysis
I approached the analysis of the interview responses by thematic coding (Robson, 2011, p. 467), where themes are naturally occurring from the interview respondents, but also grouped the responses in alignment with the theoretical framework, as the majority of the questions were crafted with the theoretical framework in mind.
The analysis of the data started when the process of thematic coding was finished. The information was divided into categories and subcategories and then related to the theoretical framework and previous research. This data was then categorized, segmented, interpreted and compared (Jensen, 2002, p. 258) with other responses.
5.1.6 Evaluation of the Interview Process
It was hard to reach out to participants without any personal connection and no financial reward in exchange. Open calls for participants (with certain criteria) did not seem to be working and only direct messages to individuals proved effective.
All of the participants signed their consent form prior to the interview and besides technical problems occurring during the pilot interviews, there were no technical issues with the other recordings. The full recorded interviews and written notes have resulted in the presented
39 quotations. However, some of the text was adjusted for grammatical reasons including filling in of some words. When more words than a grammatical correction was filled in, they were put in square brackets for a smooth transition from spoken to written language. Where some additional information was needed, I filled it in with a text in regular brackets.
5.1.7 Limitations
One limitation of the conducted interviews is the age and household homogeneity. I would have liked to have included responses from people having kids at home, or older participants. Another limitation is that the majority of interviewees were living in big cities (capitals of both of the countries) which have their specificities. Among those is the higher cost of rental space which often results in limited space options. For studying home environments, it would have been fruitful to hear from more people who are not struggling with space and possibly have an area separated only for working. In my interview sample only one participant had this option.
40 6. Result and analysis
This chapter presents the interview answers from the participants, together with an analysis based on the theoretical framework. The interview answers are divided into six main categories: Human connectedness and Digital connectivity, Front region and back region, Boundary theory, Transformations between ritual states, Reasons to disconnect from media, and Creativity. Within these categories, there are themes focusing on different aspects of the creatives' experiences and opinions on the situation of working from home imposed by the COVID-19.
From notes and recorded files, I proceeded with identifying patterns to see whether or not there are similarities among the respondents. I did not fully transcribe the whole conversations as a lot of it was irrelevant to the topic of the thesis. However, I was doing descriptive notes and then listening to the recorded conversations again and fully transcribing the relevant parts. This combination of notes was then put into one document, differentiating each participant with one colour. The findings revealed certain shared opinions but I tried not to essentialize them or claim them widely applicable. As Jensen (2002) suggests, there is a need to be aware of the interpretation of the outcomes from the interviews. There was a need for reframing the interview questions or as Pickering (2008) puts it “The researcher must ask what themes are emerging? What questions are working and what are not? How are the findings supporting or contradicting the hypothesis?” (p.65) This is in alignment with what Strauss and Corbin (2008) suggest, to work in a ‘close relationship’ between data collection, analysis and the theory. As suggested by Jensen (2012, p. 258), I analysed the empirical data, which is a part of the six levels of analysis, with: thematic coding, categorizing, segmenting, interpreting and comparing.
To start the interview process, I let the participants talk freely about anything that comes to their minds regarding their work or private life in connection to COVID-19. This was followed by a question to compare their earlier way of work to this, for many, unusual and contemporary state. As the participants had different work backgrounds and were also from different cultural backgrounds the answers differed, but in some regards showed an
41 overwhelming homogeneity. Some of the responses were then categorized into different groups according to the emerging themes.
It is also important to note that many of the negative aspects noted in the interviews were intertwined with the social isolation situation and thus it can't be viewed purely as “work from home” related problems. It is rather the combination of the unique situation which perhaps makes it difficult for people to set boundaries as their homes are largely the only places they inhabit.
The first section, the Human connectedness and Digital connectivity, refers mostly to Research question one and two. Similarly, the following four sections, namely Front region and back region, Boundary theory, Transformations between ritual states, and Reasons to disconnect from media, refer both to Research question one and two, as the usage of media is in some way having influence on private and work life, thus intertwining these two research questions. The last section called Creativity analyses the findings in relation to Research question three. All of these topics have subtopics which are further tapping into the theoretical framework and thematic findings.
6.1 Human connectedness
This chapter analyses the human connectedness (Van Dijck, 2013) as something cherished in the real life. The examples encompass both the hard to replicate in the digital world connectedness, and also the positive, social feelings being successfully reproduced in the digital world.
An example of the later can be seen in this quote by Participant H: H: “I feel much more connected (to the world) because we have a shared sense of this situation which is very connecting. For example, I was invited to a birthday party I normally wouldn't be, or [join a] hackathon which I would not normally do. [It is also] amazing to have a glimpse into the lives of people on the other side of the world.”
42 Furthermore, some people feel now paradoxically more connected to their employers than before. The reasons seem to be a feeling of togetherness, more frequent updates and seeing private spaces of their colleagues' lives:
A: “I feel connected now more than ever. A lot of updates and emails from the company. So many emails [actually], it is easy to get lost.”
B: “I do [feel more connected], because I think cross hierarchical communication is easier, [with] more one to one time.”
J: “We used to work remotely as well, so not much changed but our company is doing a great job in keeping us updated and the community is quite active.”
E: “I feel like I know some people even more now because I see into their private homes. Everyone likes sharing. I feel more engaged and connected, motivated and [feel as] working as a team. I [also] feel now more invested in the company because of these tough economic times which also play a role.”
Participant G expressed happiness with spending so much more time with his wife which would otherwise not be possible and he described a similar connectedness (Van Dijck, 2013) with his extended family who lives abroad and due to digital technologies they are also more connected now:
G: “It is really nice to see my wife so much more, it is something really nice. And family in general because now they have more time to talk digitally, so we even speak more because they are not so busy with their lives.”
In addition to the rise of time spend with their partners, this situation proved to be a test for Participant J's own relationship: J: “For me personally this situation is not so new, but it was a test for my relationship which we passed… it is nice to see that we can live together on such a small space and not kill each other.”
43 The preferred way to contact the interviewees' friends/family depended on the people they are in contact with, on the occasion, or on the time of the day. Yet the majority preferred video calling as it is the closest to the "real thing”. Furthermore, many people were used to communicating digitally, with their friends/families from far away. The following are examples of the ways how people preferred to communicate in these times, showing the importance of connectedness with the people they cared for:
K: “Depends on which friends and their preferences and time preferences but usually we just meet up with ten friends and do a video call which is super nice.”
I: “I prefer calling with my friends, sometimes video, but it depends on the day and how I feel. For sure I don't want to text because I spend the day texting with people.”
For Participant F, the preference in the style of communication with his friends changed from the pre-COVID-19 times. This is perhaps due to the lack of physical connections shown in the changed view on video calling, which is perhaps better for connectedness:
F: “Before corona I used to always text, but now because video calls are so frequent, I got used to video calling, so that became the norm. It is faster, clearer and I prefer that now. It is much more personal.”
6.2 Digital connectivity
In contrary to the more private connections, the interviewees noted, that in many cases they were not missing the physical professional connections. Actually, the majority of the participants preferred digital communication with their work. The form of this digital communication depended then on the nature of the topic the participant needed to discuss with their work.
44 6.2.1 Positive aspects of digital connectivity
For Participant I the teamwork and communication improved when transferred into the digital space: I: “For my team of 15 people, the communication improved, because now we need to sync more, have better documentation and catch up. So I think we are now more aware of who is doing what. Feedback [also] improved because before I wasn’t used to ask about people's opinion, but now we share more.”
Similarly, also Participant B enjoyed the digital connectivity (Van Dijck, 2013) with her work: B: “I think I prefer digital connections professionally because I am an introvert and like to have this kind of barrier.”
Other participants also agreed to the preferred digital communication with their workplaces: C: “I definitely prefer digital connection professionally but in the private life I prefer real-life connection.”
E: “Because I have human contact at home, I don't seek it with my colleagues. Sometimes we do digital fikas so we still socialize unrelated to work. There is an amazing number of activities my company is doing which is great.”
Furthermore, Participant E also appreciated the time spent more efficiently for work. Thus it seems that in his case the digital connection for his company's meetings is more efficient:
E: “Meetings are amazingly transformed, what would usually take one hour now takes 15 minutes.”
However, the quick pace of the online meetings might not be only positive. It can also mean that in the digital environment people are less willing to spend time on the 'connectedness' part or that some people are not feeling comfortable/speak up in the digital meetings.
Yet the participants noted that in the new WFH situation, they find themselves being able to focus more with their workplaces being physically separated. Some participants described
45 that this work arrangement works better for them in a way that they are able to focus more naturally and listen to their own preferable work rhythm rather than just work in the given time frame: G: “Now I am really focused only on one thing which is super nice. And it happened so out of my hand.”
A: “At first I was more productive, because I was more focused to work. At work you are always clashing between your priorities, at home you can more easily prioritize.”
F: “I would say I am 50% more productive from home because I have no one to disturb me…asking me questions...which [in the office] is difficult to get into the flow...while now with the concentration it is easier as I have also much less stress.”
Among the positive aspects of digital connectivity (Van Dijck, 2013) is the previous high saturation of it. This means, that for many interviewees the situation didn't feel so different as they were used to working from home. Because the situation didn't feel so different, many of the interviewees didn't have a problem with the new WFH situation:
H: “I enjoyed travelling so I have a lot of skills in working from home. I don't feel the situation is so new for me as I was used to working from home before too.”
J: “[The situation is] the same from my perspective as I experienced this already before and some things got actually better in my team. [The situation] didn't change for me so much as I was used to freelancing from home. It affects me mostly in my private life, I miss gyms and saunas and so on.”
E: “Collaboration with my colleagues was always very digital, so this didn't change much. Feedback is basically the same.”
46 6.2.2 Negative aspects of digital connectivity
However, for example Participant A, did not count to the majority mentioned earlier, and voiced a problem with remote work lacking good communication which worsens the teamwork: A: “It is much more difficult to work in teams and getting direct answers.”
Moreover, other people didn't share the higher sense of belonging to their companies which can been seen in the previous chapter on human connectedness (Van Dijck, 2013): D: “[...] we try to have online fikas, so I feel connected to my team but not with the rest of the company. So to say, with the overall company it is worse. They give us updates but I don't feel connected to the company as a whole.”
F: “I feel much more disconnected to my company because they don't put so much effort in making us feel connected. So I feel more separated and it makes the work relation worse ...now it is more sterile.”
The answers from participants D and F remind of an isolation (Blauner, 1964) from work. Work isolation was defined by Blauner (1964) as “[...] the worker feels no sense of belonging in the work situation or is unable to identify or uninterested in identifying with the organization and its goals.” (1964, p.24). Participant F expressed himself negatively about the company's lack of effort to go beyond the work obligations. Now he feels all communication and relationship is more "business oriented".
6.2.3 Aspects which are missed in digital connectivity
Several participants also noted that they are missing some aspects from the pre-COVID-19 times, which are not easily transferred into the digital world, or to use the introduced terminology, they missed the 'connectedness' not being transmitted to the 'digital connectivity' (Van Dijck, 2013).
A: “I am missing social connections that are not related to work, like grabbing a coffee together, or play some games. So combining something fun and work related.
47 [Right now] there is really no personal communication with my colleagues. But I also tend to feel bad about non-work related time when working from home.”
E: “Of course seeing friends is different in real life and online.”
D: “I miss my colleagues and work together with them and have hands-on work with a board and markers. [It is the] same with the customers, and I also miss my big wide screen and my work chair.”
Participant K was speaking of the tangible real-life parts of communication which she misses and doesn't get from the digital connections:
K: “I miss the smell of other people…. you cannot really transfer it online and I also miss touching people in a non-creepy way, I miss that too because it is impossible to transfer online. [Furthermore] there are many negative aspects (connected to working only digitally) as I was used to work with so many people on a personal level which is not possible now.”
Furthermore, many interviewees voiced the feeling that all of their activities shifted into the online environment, activities that were before relaxing and offering “no-screen time” for relaxation and socializing. However, in the times when people are asked to stay home because of the situation imposed by COVID-19 many of these activities are replaced by their online versions. The interviewees said they experienced online fikas, after-work beer, playing games or watching Netflix with other people online. However, some participants noted a certain discomfort with the situation as demonstrated by Participant G:
G: “Right now everything happens online, also recreational activities like fikas or common breakfasts, chatting with friends and so on, which only increases my screen time which is something I tried to avoid [before].”
Participant I expressed herself to be somewhere in the middle of being used to the digital communication with her friends and family but also missing the physical connectedness:
48 I: “I miss being outside with friends for coffee, food, dinner, but because I am from Brazil I am used to keeping in touch with my friends and family [online].
From the chapter on human connectedness and digital connectivity (Van Dijck, 2013) we could see that the digital connectivity seems to be working more for the professional environment. Many participants voiced benefits that come with this change. However, for the extended feeling of connectedness, there was often a problem with the things that are hard to be transmitted into ones and zeros. This feeling was experienced both in private and professional connectedness among the interviewees. In the private connections it was seen as aspects that people miss while in the professional places it was making the work relations for some interviewees (perhaps more efficient) but more sterile.
6.3 Front region and back region
The front and back region (Goffman, 1956) are important terms in connection to the boundary theory (Nippert-Eng 1996) and transformation between ritual states (Bengtsson, 2006). That is because the front and back region are demarcated by some form of boundaries, where transformation between ritual states is useful in order to change from one (region or ritual state) into another.
6.3.1 Front region
To be in the front region for the interviewees means to be at work. This reality is true regardless whether the work happens online or in the office, as many interviewees are still communicating with their colleagues or clients online.
However, for many interviewees the front region at home changed. There is usually no need to look too professionally as voiced by Participant I: I: “I am in comfortable clothes, I don't have to commute, the whole preparation, the transition to work is so much more smooth and calm.”
49 The change to the relaxing back region is also much easier. For example, Participant D's front region is now set more by her which creates a nicer work environment. Moreover, she can take her meetings (front region) on the balcony and structure her day more according to her:
D: “I can manage my time in a better way and don't need to commute, and I take longer breaks. I also eat healthier [and] enjoy my plants more [with] the balcony, and [that] I can take meetings there. I was here (in my apartment) usually when it was already dark, so I am happy to see my apartment [more] during sunlight.”
The quote above is also connected to the higher presence in the back region which will be discussed in the following section.
6.3.2 Back region
The back region (Goffman, 1956) is the place for people to drop off their performances, relax and be themselves. For many interviewees, the fact that they work from home now offered many positive aspects because they gained some time which would otherwise be “lost” in commuting or getting ready for work. For some it was easier to access the back region in this new situation.
The back region (Goffman, 1956) is accessed through different transformation between regions and with establishing different boundaries. Accessing the back region is important in order to balance out the presence in the front region (Turkle, 2008), where people work and make work calls, and are often happening in the same environment as leisure is.
For example, Participant E was talking about the ways he can incorporate his back region more easily to his everyday life:
E: “I found out that I prefer to communicate digitally [with work] to be honest, because it gives me so much more time to focus, I feel like I can kind of incorporate my life a little bit more, because in between working on assignments I can go for a walk or have a snack. I also noticed that my work hours are more flexible as I might start earlier, then stop at some point, and then pick up again in the evening.”
50 While other participants enjoyed having more time on their hands: A: “Now I am enjoying the small things that are possible like going for a run after work. I also go out more often for no reason, just to recharge, breathe air and disconnect. That is also something I would like to take out of from this.”
D: “I do a lot of home projects like sourdough. [I also] enjoy having more time for my plants and books.”
As seen in the previous quotes, a topic that occurred from a casual conversation with the participants and certain benefits and disadvantages of the current situation led the conversation to the topic of mental well-being. For example, Participant F was experiencing extra time and increased focus which both helped him to achieve a higher state of mental well-being and more balanced work-life:
F: “I would like to take away from this situation the awareness of mental health and the work/life balance and the impact of stress on productivity. It is this extra hour to give back to yourself, which makes me feel more stable.”
Moreover, “When the world gives you lemons, turn them into a lemonade” … seems to be a motto of many of the interviewees as they found many positive aspects originating from the new situation and having more time on their hands (thus the ability to spend more time in their back regions) which they would like to take away with them into the future. These answers are also referring to Research question one (How do the creatives handle the change from their regular work environment to the purely digitally connected yet socially isolated spaces at home?) as they concern the overall handling of the situation. Several participants noted the increased simplicity as anchoring and were being mindful of reflecting on their previous hectic way of living, as illustrated by Participant K and others:
K: “[I would like to take from this situation the increased practice of] yoga, being mindful and maybe also getting to know myself which is a big source of depressions…. sometimes I feel lost in myself and this is a great time to get to know each other for the future.”
51 E: “For sure I would like to take a certain sense of simplicity. I would also like to take advantage of the nature, flexible schedule and focus on the little things, like cooking. A bit of happiness in the simplicity as a creative outlet which I would like to continue doing.”
6.3.3 Backstage control: clashing of both regions
The clashing between the front and the back regions, or the backstage control (Goffman, 1959) occurs when two regions overlap and it creates problems for the people. For some participants these clashes are harder in the home environment (in contrast with physically segmented work environments), as the merge between different regions is more present. Because of the higher integration of the regions, the backstage control then can occur more often as those regions are closer together.
For Participant K, the clashing between different regions (front and back) was a problem for her routines. The problem seems to be with the mental segmentations (Nippert-Eng 1996), which the participants are in charge of. There are no supervisors controlling them and thus sometimes it is hard to stick to the mental or temporal boundary within one geographical frame which creates the clashes between the front region (when the Participant should be working) and the back region (relaxing by watching TV):
K: “For example I have this bad habit that when I eat I watch TV and then when I am done eating I realise, I am home, I can just continue watching TV for another 20 minutes and that's the moment when the routine starts to break down.”
6.4 Boundary theory
Different regions (front/back) or different ritual states (work/rest) are usually somehow demarcated. This demarcation of an appropriate behaviour (ritual state) has different kinds depending on its nature. It is very important to say that for all of the interviewees, the new WFH situation shifted all of their previous boundaries. The physical boundary was shifted from office to home, the temporal from more set time frame such as 9-5, to another time
52 frame which the participants decided for themselves (with usually longer working hours). Moreover, the mental boundary shifted together with the other two needed to be used more than in the previous setup (as seen in the examples with exercising or unplugging).
Integration Integration of boundaries happens when the boundaries for different ritual states (activities) are not firmly separated (Nippert-Eng 1996). An example of this can be seen by Participant H who integrated boundary for weekend with her work: H: “In theory I try to keep weekends free but now few things are happening during it, so I will work during them as well.”
Segmentation Segmentation appears through firmly separating boundaries between different activities (Nippert-Eng 1996). These will be described in the further chapters respectively: physical boundary, temporal boundary, and mental boundary.
An example of mixing several forms of boundaries can be seen in this quote by Participant H who enjoys different ways to establish boundaries between her work and leisure. From physical, to an intramedia transformation where she enjoys some cultural programme: H: “I am going out in the nature but also being active and physical. Also, a nice way to shut off [work] is [to watch online] theatre from the BBC which gives me non- corona-related culture.”
Therefore, we can see that the mixture of integration and segmentation of boundaries is not excluding each other. Some boundaries can be segmented while others are integrated for any aspect of interviewees' lives.
53 6.4.1 Physical boundary
The physical boundary refers to the geographical change of frames (such as changing rooms or devoting a space for work in the WFH environment). Physical boundary is very useful as its boundaries are firmly fixed unlike with the (mental and temporal) forms of boundaries.
6.4.1.1 Integration of physical boundaries
For approximately half of the respondents, it was harder in the new situation to disconnect from work. For the other half it was easier or the same. This situation seemed to be easier to disconnect from for those who experienced less stress in this new WFH set-up. In connection to Research Question One: How do the creatives handle the change from their regular work environment to the digitally connected yet socially isolated spaces at home? this problem refers to advantages and difficulties with handling the change.
Many participants articulated the problem with setting boundaries (boundary integration) for work and leisure as both are happening in the same environment. This often results in blurring the boundaries and overworking which will be further demonstrated. For example, Participant C, who enjoys working from home acknowledged that she misses only one aspect of working in the open-office, and that is the physical segmentation of the work and leisure environments. At home she has more troubles setting boundaries as they are more integrated:
C: “It is hard for me to set boundaries so I work much more than usually. I feel guiltier now for taking time for myself...so that would be the only thing I would miss about my office. Leaving it means that it is the end of the work day...which now does not exist as you can always open the computer and work a bit more. But it is something you can learn.”
Participant K talks about a similar problem of leaving work behind in the same place as leisure: K: “[Disconnection from work] is much harder because you do everything at the same place, so it is very important to make borders, [because now it is] very hard to distinguish [when to stop working].”
54 Participant J then further touched upon the problem of the lack of physical boundaries on mental health. He experienced a burnout in the past when overworking himself which taught him to separate his work and leisure more in order to relax. In his quote we can explicitly see the importance of physical and temporal segmentation of boundaries:
J: “[...] if you are not careful, then work from home can be difficult for you to stop working. Especially if you have the same space for leisure and work and you don't put a hard stop to your work. But I learned this the hard way before the coronavirus. I experienced a burnout last year and it was terrible but it was solely my doing because I tend to put more work on my shoulders than I can handle….”
From the answers it seemed that the lack of physical segmentation overrules the temporal or mental segmentations (Nippert-Eng 1996) as the latter boundaries are not as firmly defined. In different words, due to the lack of the physical boundary (the lack of office), it is harder for the interviewees to stick with their previous mental or temporal boundaries devoted for work. Physical segmentation does not depend on the individual will of the people, unlike the other two forms of segmentation.
6.4.1.2 Segmentation of physical boundaries
Due to the lack of space, most respondents did not have a completely separated workplace (except Participant J) but expressed they would want one. However, many participants still had a special place at home where were they working from: C: “Now I use the kitchen table which transfers with different things between work and leisure.”
In the previous work set-up, Participant C also liked to create a physical boundary for herself at work: C: “In our open office we have also some solo rooms which are small and silent and I have been using them from the very first week, but I think that has to do with me being an introvert.”
Moreover, more participants described their separation of workplaces at home:
55 F: “I work from one place at home…. when I don't work I wander around and try to get my mind off of things for a minute, comparing it to the open office, I didn't feel that freedom to do so (wandering around).”
I: “When we are in the bedroom we are not working and when we are in the living room we are. In the living room we have a corner where we work, so even though it is not a separate room, it is a very separate space, 'a corner for work'. But I would totally like to have a separate room just for work, I was already looking for a bigger apartment... it would be great.”
Similarly, to Participant I, Participant B expressed her desire to have a completely separate workspace as she only has a “corner for work” available at her current apartment:
B: “I think I would like to separate, work and leisure because I love to draw and do these kinds of artistic things. It would be perfect to have a small studio for painting but also working on a computer. With lots of plants, natural light and a window for fresh air but I don't think I will be able to afford this anytime soon.”
For Participant E, the ritual around changing the workday changed. Now to separate between work and leisure, he proceeds where he can move, thus it falls under the physical boundary as he actually changes the geographical location (like going for a walk):
E: “My way of ending the work day is very different from the previous way, but I try to separate the day by something physical, like going for a walk, cleaning the house, putting the computer away but it is much harder now.”
For some participants, nature was a part of the physical segmentation. Going to nature was a recharging activity for many, as a practice for changing the frames: C: “We are very lucky that there is always a place where we can escape into (the mountains) which is really good.”
K: “The best is to take a walk or go to the nature and change the whole environment, hug some trees and focus on something else.”
56 Similarly, Participant G likewise enjoyed nature but he connected it also to being offline which is a mixture of the physical and mental boundaries: G: “We do day walks and enjoy the nature or go for a run. I [also] enjoy recharging form work by not being online...because that's my work and the opposite is that (not being online) so I can recharger from it.”
And lastly, Participant J as an exception with his separated apartment in place of an office: J: “I actually go into my friend’s place who is stuck abroad for some time and I use his apartment as an office. It helps me really well to separate work and non-work.”
Interestingly, in a study done by Atchley et al. (2012) adults who spent four days in nature devoid of all access from electronic technology demonstrated an increase in creative problem solving skills. Even though the interviewees didn't do any retreat like this, they still felt that being in nature is recharging them.
6.4.2 Temporal boundary
Temporal and mental boundaries seem to go hand in hand. As previously seen in the example of Participant K, who had troubles sticking to her temporal boundary (Backstage control: clashing of both regions), the temporal and mental segmentations of boundaries are often connected. For a certain amount of time (20 min for break or 8 hours for work), people have the mental boundary set for 'leisure' or 'work' or other activities.
6.4.2.1 Integration of temporal boundaries
Integration of temporal boundaries is connected to the lack of the physical boundary which was present in interviewees' former offices/studios. In the new situation it was harder for many to stick to the temporal boundary such as the work framework of nine-to-five for work. For example, Participant E acknowledged that the looser temporal segmentation of his work tasks is leading to a higher willingness to work overtime:
E: “I think I work more hours which is surprising. Because you need to be in sync with other people too. And also because of my flexibility I feel more willing to be
57 more available. Five hours a week maybe on average. Before corona, the time frame was much more set and we shouldn't do any overtime. In this situation now we have more fluid work hours but within a certain time frame. [...] I would say I am more productive now when we found some rhythm to communicate and organise tasks. It is also because I can focus more.”
Other participants were describing the problems which were introduced in the boundary integration section. The biggest problem for many was the difficulty to stick to their temporal boundary for work (usually eight hours for work) to stop working which resulted in overworking. For Participant I, the integration of temporal boundaries happened also due to having a job in a big international company with worldwide clients, thus the boundaries of worktimes on one side of the globe sometime integrated with hers:
I: “I am overworking because it is hard to draw the line when to stop working because of the differences in time zones with our international clients, we are always being contacted...so it is hard to draw the boundaries, but other than that I enjoy it (WFH).”
Furthermore, she also described the difficulties with integration of her own temporal boundaries for work: I: “I work much more, at least four hours more per day because I don't know how to set up boundaries, even though I keep a timer for work. But when I work now I don't take breaks which I used to take in the office.”
Another form of a temporal boundary is the concept of a weekend/workweek. The time for leisure and disconnection from work was usually connected to the notion of weekends. The following quotes are the reflections of the participants on what the biggest difference for them between their workweek and weekend is:
H: “In theory I try to keep weekends free but now few things are happening during it so I will work during them as well. I try to give myself some time off so social distancing works very well. I try to be outside and meet up with someone to socialize and exercise so right now it is one day to socialize and one day just for me.”
58 J: “They (workweek and weekend) really feel similar so I am not sure but they are not so different, I just want to keep some breaks, go for walk and shut off my devices, to keep my focus.”
However, here it is important to note, that Participant H lives in Sweden where the casual socializing is possible. In the Czech Republic during the quarantine, meetups with friends would not have been as easy as every outdoor activity was supposed to be well-justified. That is also why people in the Czech Republic might be missing some aspects of ‘connectedness’ more because they are being more affected by the situation socially.
Now is time to return back to the discussion about weekends. Although, some participants didn't see a big difference between the concepts of a weekend and a weekday, Participant K saw no difference at all: K: “I see no difference [between weekday and weekend] as I am used to working during weekends as well and as my partner also works during the weekend. I try to sync with him and be free when he is free.”
Another example of a temporal boundary can be seen in this quote by Participant J who mixes a temporal and mental boundary in scheduling break times as they don't come naturally for him in his WFH environment. Nonetheless, he is aware of the importance of taking them. The temporal boundary is in the 'planning' of his rest periods while the mental boundary is in “refocusing” on his other hobbies:
J: “On the other hand because I have so many hobbies it is very easy to refocus and plan my rest periods because I tend to forget about them. I would love to disconnect from work, but because I don't have a switch it can be hard.”
As seen in many of the examples above, the lack of a physical boundary in connection to the looser temporal (and mental) boundary, often resulted in people working much more. A possible reason for overworking is the changed sense of time which is being affected by the lack of physical boundary and not sticking to the temporal or mental boundaries. Therefore, it seems that the penetration of work into the weekend is easier in this setup for some of the participants. Similarly, to the conclusion found in Turkle's work (2008), many participants had difficulties detaching themselves from work and as such faced overworking
59 or burnouts. Shockingly, all the respondents except for one whose work tasks were reduced in general, commented that they work more hours now.
6.4.2.2 Segmentation of temporal boundaries
The temporal boundaries were not all only integrated. For some participants the temporal boundary still acted as a tool for segmenting their ritual states. For example, Participant A described his temporal boundary for when to start working:
A: “I am getting up at the same time and I take more time doing things. (Before I had company breakfast) but now I get up at seven and start at eight and I check the tasks that are assigned to me. After coffee I start to work.”
However, he experienced problems in the new set up as his boundaries are too integrated and he acknowledged himself that he would need stricter temporal boundary segmentation:
A: “I think I would get crazy if this would be the long term solution like “the new normal” mainly because you talk with the same people. Chitchat is kind of fake now in the online environment with my colleagues. I believe [it would take me] one more month it for going crazy (two months in total) or I would have to change more things, like giving myself stricter work hours with strict times for work and leisure.”
While another participant knew that he has been working a lot in the previous work set up as well, his workday now is more 'intense'. So although he has a temporal segmentation for work (ten to twelve hours) he still has a hard time to stop working. He suggests that it is hard to set up a mental segmentation for his work as he constantly thinks about it:
J: “Yeah, I definitely work more now. I used to work a lot before as well and it is kind of a misty situation because of the nature of our work where you don't have one task that you start and finish. So you have to have a lot of problem solving skills and it is hard to turn that off... we say that as designers we never stop working, maybe it’s not intentionally that you would like to do that but when it is stuck in your head you have to constantly think about it. So I would say that I still work maybe ten to twelve hours but they are definitely more intense.”
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Furthermore, many of the examples which could be used here were already introduced previously as they are also falling under the physical boundary because many participants are mixing them with other forms of boundaries.
6.4.3 Mental boundary
Mental boundaries are set with an intention to be in a certain 'ritual state' (Bengtsson, 2006), such as work. For some participants, this mental boundary was demarcated by shifting focus, doing manual work, unplugging or exercising. Such a time demarcated for other activities then functions for recalibrating, in the case of my participants, recalibrating in the offline world from the online world by, for example, focusing on some manual work as seen with Participant I: I: “Normally I like to read, and I started doing more manual things which recharge me as it is no screen time…. sometimes I do yoga but not very regularly. Daily I stretch.”
6.4.3.1 Integration of mental boundaries
Similarly to the temporal boundary, the mental boundary is often hard to follow, because it requires discipline with routines. But many participants lack or were not able to create them yet. Perhaps due to the hardness of segmenting boundaries, which could be connected with the overworking introduced in the Integration of physical boundaries part, most of the interviewees didn't have any routine for ending their work day as demonstrated by Participant F: F: “I do nothing to end [my workday], just stop working.”
6.4.3.2 Segmentation of mental boundaries
However, for some participants who experienced increased focus and decreased stress (such as Participant F) in this new situation, it is nonetheless easier to disconnect from work and create a mental boundary. This segmented mental boundary can be seen in the “disconnection” from work due to a higher focus. Participant F can more easily relax his mind when not working, because he is less stressed:
61 F: “I feel it is easier to disconnect from work now, because I can work much more in focus and it is less stressful, not as frustrating and then I shut of my computer and I can disconnect more.”
This ability is shared by Participant K. The mental boundary works well for her as she has a great ability to focus (known from other quotes): K: “I just try to be productive and when I am not then I just stop working, so I don't want to push myself so much and I try to listen to myself because I know it makes no sense to continue working.”
6.4.3.2.1 Exercising Although 'exercising' is organised under the mental segmentation, it was also an activity scheduled for a specific time for interviewee C, therefore it has aspects of a temporal boundary segmentation too. Besides the general ways to set up mental segmentation of boundaries introduced earlier, exercising was often used for ending a work day.
C: “Exercising is the only boundary I have to switch off because other than that it is hard for me to set up boundaries. So it is good that the exercise makes sure that I never stay longer with it, [it acts as a] time restraint.”
For others it was not an activity tied to time: E: “I do something physical and put my work computer away.”
F: “Just close my laptop and do some of my hobbies. I exercise to shut off my mind so exercising is the only way to cut it out, and it is a great recharger too.”
6.4.3.2.2 Unplugging After exercising, another form of creating the mental boundary (Nippert-Eng 1996) could be found through digital disconnection which seemed to be for many an important aspect of relaxing. Similarly to digital disconnection introduced in the Theoretical context, both people who are exposed to a lot of digital activities, as demonstrated in the example by Fish (2017), and also the participants of my interviews, were doing some unplugging practices, as many of their activities shifted onto digital platforms. So it is perhaps this heavy use of digital
62 technologies for various aspects of participants' lives, including work, social, and entertainment aspects which creates the need for the opposite.
Speaking of the similarities, the appreciation of regaining time was mutual between respondents in Woodstock's (2014) study (on media resistors) and my participants. His participants voiced their reason to unplug into the following categories: 'Regaining control', 'Establishing boundaries', 'Resisting information overload', and 'Establishing greater personal life balance'. For seeing the overlaps, I will analyse the following citations with these categories found in Woodstock (2014).
The possibility to unplug was for Participant I connected to weekends as time without work, therefore possibly mixing 'Establishing boundaries' and 'Establishing greater personal life balance': I: “I try not to open the computer [during weekends] and we cook more together now (because I used to have food in the office so I didn't have to cook).”
Interestingly, disconnection as a mental boundary is often accompanied by a physical boundary too, perhaps for a larger effect: I: “I turn off the computer and if I need to do something on the computer I change places.”
Participant A chose to disconnect from work but still used the same medium he used for work. Thus we can talk about a certain type of intramedia transformation, which is a change of ritual states (from work to leisure) while using the same medium differently.
We can say that this behaviour is a form of keying (Goffman, 1974) in an intramedia use of technology (Bengtsson, 2006), because the change is small but significant. The reason behind using 'the moon icon' was to still be able to use the technologies but not being disturbed by work. The moon icon is similar to “Do Not Disturb” and it lets the user silence calls, notifications, or alerts. In relation to the framework taken from Woodstock (2014), this unplugging could be seen as 'Establishing boundaries' and 'Resisting information overload' (notifications from work):
A: “I use the moon icon to shut down all the applications to disconnect from work.”
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While for Participant D it was important to preserve a certain level of disconnection at home. This act could be translated into an inclination towards media resistance, where the motivation would be a combination of 'Regaining control', 'Establishing boundaries', and 'Establishing greater personal life balance': D: “I don't have Wi-Fi so I use my hotspot so it is hard to use a lot of internet for my other projects, so I don't want to use it too much for my personal life. And I don't really like the idea of getting it (Wi-Fi) because I enjoyed not having it at home since 2010.”
To conclude, among the most frequent ways to access the back region (Goffman, 1956) and relax from work was for the interviewees to disconnect from their devices, exercise, and be in the nature. This was done by segmenting their boundaries either physically, temporally or mentally.
6.5 Transformations between ritual states
Transformation between ritual states is linked to the creation of boundaries. For example, the geographic transformation is very similar to the physical boundary. However, Stina Bengtsson (2006) described two more forms of transformations between ritual states on which I will focus in the following chapter. One of these forms is the intermedia transformation, which is a transformation of a ritual state with the use of different media (such as work-computer, leisure-TV) and the other one is intramedia transformation which happens within one medium (such as computer for both work and leisure).
6.5.1 Intermedia (Different media)
The following are examples of the participants having separated media for work and leisure. TV and iPad were the most common media used for leisure. However, owning a TV was shared by only three participants. The other interviewees were using other media (such as projector or laptop) in place of a TV.
64 Participant A was using a separated medium also due to his privacy concerns as his company might be surveilling the media provided from work:
A: “I use an iPad for leisure because it is not connected to any company activity. [company's name] is kind of openly saying that they are checking their employees’ activity so I think they do. Then I also have a phone from work where I do my personal things as well.”
Other participants didn't mention this sort of privacy concerns but still had some media only for leisure: B: “I have a TV only for leisure but other than that I use all for all.”
F: “If I am [too] exhausted [for exercising], then I relax with a movie, but that's because of my partner too. On my own I would [just] play an instrument, which works similarly to exercise. It puts your mind off of work.”
Only one participant tried to separate (segment) his work computer and personal computer and acknowledged the possible clash if he would be using one for both: E: “I try to separate my work computer and leisure computer because when you chill you can disconnect more from work.”
6.5.2 Intramedia (One medium)
Media were usually used by the interviewees in an intramedia fashion. Some interviewees had a TV or an iPad only for leisure, while computers and phones were usually used for both work and leisure. This ownership suggests a preferred intramedia use of technologies among the participants of my interview.
As many participants were using all their media in an intramedia way, they didn't have a single medium which would be used only for leisure or only for work. Rather they used their media for different purposes as can be seen in the quote by Participant C: C: “I have one phone and computer for both work and leisure.”
65 While Participant G used his one medium for work and leisure: G: “I don't really do anything particular to stop working, unless I start watching a show or turn off my computer.”
Participant F further discussed his inter- and intramedia way of using media. The predominating would be an intramedia fashion as only his instruments are designated for a separate ritual state (playing music): F: “[I use] both for both (using computer and phone for both work and leisure) except for my instruments which are only for leisure.”
However, the problem of the intramedia way of transforming between different ritual states was not favoured by Participant B who didn't like to have private and professional conversation happening not only on the same medium but also the same channel (Facebook):
B: “There is one aspect which I don't like and that is using Facebook professionally, it clashes too much with my private and work life.”
Drawing on the quote mentioned by Participant B, it can be said that the front and back region in the intramedia use was too integrated. However, the other participants didn't voice any discomfort in using their media for both work and leisure.
6.5.3 Role of music in creating different kinds of exclusivity
Connected to the inter- and intramedia transformation (as music can be played from the same or a different device), this chapter is about the special role of music in aiding the work or leisure places at home or in the office. Music can play a role in the 'climate' as an isolation tool because it can create different kinds of exclusivity (Stockfelt, 1988) or as a keying device (Goffman, 1974, p. 40-83). Both aspects were described by some of the interviewees. As noted in the theoretical section, social environment as an external factor influences creativity (Amabile, 2012, p 10) and with that the ease of work. That is perhaps why for some interviewees it was important to create a non- disturbing 'social environment'. This was done in their former offices by listening to music, thus creating an exclusivity for themselves (in sense of: “I listen to my music which is not heard by anyone else, thus I am alone in this mental space.”).
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This sort of need to create a non-disturbing work environment can be seen in the quote by Participant C who got recommended a website, which simulates sounds made in an open office. This website was suggested to her by one of her more nostalgic colleagues who was missing their open office: C: “There is this website which simulates noises that you can find in an open office. I tried it and it is so hard to concentrate with it... it actually made me anxious.”
However, as seen in the quote above, Participant C prefers the calmness of her home environment from which she doesn't need to exit to an excluded place via music. Such an inclination was present for Participant C before WFH who liked to unplug from her office through music: C: “[At home] most of the time I don't listen to music when I work. But in the open office I had to listen to music. It would be a big deal to forget my headphones…I used them to isolate myself a bit. At home, I prefer movie sounds as a background noise more than music.”
Moreover, the majority of the respondents were talking about the fact that in their previous work set-up (usually an open office), they had the need to listen to music in order to isolate themselves from the environments and to focus better. In that sense, music was a keying device, slightly changing the nature of the actions. With participants' shift from work into home environments, the level of distractions changed and many interviewees stopped listening to music. In their free time, they often listened to podcasts as it is something they cannot do while working. The following examples are showing the preference of podcasts after work:
A: “I don't listen to music while I work and after work I listen to Czech songs on Spotify. I also have one podcast I always want to listen to.”
H: “I listen to podcasts when not working.”
While the following quotes demonstrate the preference of not listening to music while working at home:
67 I: “Lately I am not listening to music because I need to think more, also I have a problem as English is not my native language. I get confused to hear English lyrics and read at the same time as I think it connects the same parts of the brain.”
K: “I prefer to listen to no music when I work or instrumental music or yoga music.”
J: “I don't really listen to music at work because in my position I tend to have four to five meetings so with so many meetings it makes no sense, but if I do then it is something with electronic beats or something subtle without lyrics. I sometimes listen to music when I don't work, it is actually really interesting to reflect on that because I almost stopped listening to music now...I used to listen to music when driving a car but am not doing that right now...yeah I listen to podcasts so I must sound like a freak to not listen to music.”
Simultaneously, people who made exceptions as seen in the quotes above, were then talking about the kind of music they listen to when they listen to music. It was most often some relaxing music with no lyrics which is not clashing with people's concentration which they need when they are reading/working:
I: “I only listen to music when I do something automatic. Or at least something with lyrics, otherwise I listen to boost mood music that gives me energy when I am not working…In the office I was listening to music without lyrics but now since working from home I don't really do that.”
6.6 Reasons to disconnect from media
In addition to the the similarities described in the mental boundary and unplugging where the reasons to disconnect from media were introduced, another part referring to the Disconnection from media in the Theoretical Framework was relevant to the findings from my interviews. The concept is 'Resisting information overload' and it was a reason for interviewees in Woodstock's (2014) work to leave media.
68 6.6.1 Resisting information overload
Even though the interviewees didn't leave media (as from where this theoretical framework is taken from), the activity on social media changed because of the social isolation/distancing happening worldwide. Many people started to be only at home, thus no travelling or social activities took place. Therefore, it is not completely the same, as my participants didn't choose to stop following media, rather the reason is that the media stopped having such an impact on the participants due to their content. Nonetheless, the effect of leaving media or the media having not very attractive content seems to be quite similar which is resulting in decreased fear of missing out, further explained below.
Decreased fear of missing out Among the positive aspects in the new work situation, several participants commented on a rather new concept. This concept has been completely discovered by conversations with a few respondents, where a similar remark occurred which was then asked the following interviewees as well. The concept is Fear of missing out (or 'fomo'), which is connected to the presence of social media and always striving for being productive and socially active. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary (2020) it is “a worried feeling that you may miss exciting events that other people are going to, especially caused by things you see on social media”.
Many participants talked about the freeing feeling of not doing as many things as they did before and enjoying it:
C: “In this situation, fomo is disappearing, and I think it is good for many people including me.”
F: “Yes, I was always feeling like I have to do something for work or socialising. So although I am a very social person and I like changes, I am enjoying working from home because maybe subconsciously fomo doesn't exist because we all share this situation.”
For other participants this was not only tied to social media but to their overall lifestyle:
69 G: “I felt like I was doing so many things...so not only fear of missing out but also a fear of always doing something that also went away which is nice.”
B: “In a way it is freeing to have this out of my control and just do less things but I still try to learn to accept not doing much and be happy about it.”
Therefore, even though the participants did not choose to leave media, the beneficial aspect of it (resisting information overload) was still felt. This is perhaps also connected with the increased slowness of living described by other participants throughout the analysis.
6.7 Creativity
The analysis of the following findings is centred around Research question three: Do the creatives notice any impact on their creative processes caused by the changed situation in their digitally connected yet socially isolated homes? Getting answers for this question proved to be quite challenging. Having a conversation about creativity was difficult as many interviewees didn't find themselves to be “that creative”. As discussed in the theoretical part, creativity as a term has a consensual meaning in academia. Yet it doesn't have it outside of it and different people view creativity as different concepts. Such an opinion can be seen in the following quote:
J: “I don't think that creativity is something that you have [as a person], also I hate the word “creative person”, the thing is, that everyone is the same... so I wouldn't say it has changed, it (my level of creativity) is the same as it used to be before. But for other people the creativity could have decreased from seeing the same things the whole time. From my team I can say that I can observe a lot of frustration which might be also with the increased amount of work.”
Being creative was often viewed by the participants as possessing exceptional skills, not just as developing “an idea or product that is original, valued and implemented” (Csikszentmihalyi and Wolfe 2000, p. 81). However, the participants still reflected on this matter and only one participant perceived her creativity as worsened due to the lack of
70 external stimuli. All the rest viewed their individual creativity to be higher or the same in comparison to their previous ways of working.
The theoretical framework for creativity in 'The influences on creativity' by Amabile (2012) seemed to be almost merged with the seven Ps (Person(ality), Process, Product, Place, Potential, Press) of creativity developed by Velikovsky (2012) drawing on Mel Rhodes (1961). Besides the 'Domain relevant skills' all the other are encompassed by the seven Ps. 'Creativity-relevant process' as 'Process', 'Intrinsic task motivation' as 'Press' and 'Social environment' as 'Place'. Nonetheless, the 'Domain relevant skills' are not very relevant in this analysis as the skills are something I assume the participants had prior to the changed situation and are not being affected by it. However, it was very fruitful to think about what the external and internal factors from the four concepts are. For a better overview I will first state Rhodes/Velikovsky's (1961/2012) concepts followed by Amabile's (2012) in the bracket in cases where the concepts overlap.
6.7.1 Internal influences on creativity
6.7.1.1 Press (Intrinsic task motivation)
Motivation is the first internal influence on personal creativity (Amabile, 2012). For some creatives, especially those who are self-employed, these times are offering a challenge to which they wanted and needed to respond. The situation imposed by COVID-19 is definitely offering many challenges, be it the changed work environment, projects or communication. Some of the interviewees who perceived their experience as positive, did also appreciate certain elements of the new situation.
Assuming that the creatives have the other internal factors influencing creativity as 'domain- relevant skills' or 'creativity-relevant processes', 'intrinsic task motivation' (Amabile, 2012) is an internal factor which can be influenced by the outside world too (such as responding with a project to a global pandemic), but is still depending on the perception of the individual. Such motivation was found among both of the self-employed creatives who were in this new situation more motivated and also had a higher workload:
71 G: “I think it (my level of creativity) is the same but I get more excited and motivated, [because] change is happening…it gets me going, but with focus I was better in the previous setup but that's also sometimes counterproductive.”
Participant G further elaborated on responding to the current situation: G: “(The situation around COVID-19) acted as a catalyst to some of our ideas. [Now] it is a great time to answer boredom!”
While Participant H also felt more motivated which boosted her creativity: H: “I think I [work creatively a] little bit more because I am motivated by the new projects and joining webinars discussion and social connections too.”
Another example of this motivation, not connected to COVID-19 but keeping her work can be seen in a quote by Participant C who did not mind working more hours: C: “I am working more, but on the other hand I also feel very lucky to have a job because many people are losing them right now.”
To conclude, higher intrinsic motivation is possibly the reason why many participants could find a number of positive aspects coming from the new situation as described in previous parts in the analysis.
6.7.1.2 Process (Creativity-relevant processes)
The second (and last) internal factor influencing creativity is the 'process'. This is understood as process relevant to creativity, such as ideation (coming up with ideas). The majority of the interviewees said that they prefer working alone, or when they said they miss their colleagues input, they added that they don't feel their creativity being changed (except for one participant).
Even though I mentioned previously that the professional life is the online life, a claim supported by research done by Miksch and Schulz (2018), it seems that for creative processes, many of the interviewees still practice some level of analogue work too. For most participants, it is not possible to be disconnected from the digital world for a longer period of time when working, but it doesn't mean that analogue practices are altogether swept away
72 from their work. Many participants noted, that they still work in an analogue way in some part of the process, although the digital time is dominating.
G: “I think I am [working] mostly digitally but I sometimes feel like doing something analogue.”
H: “[I am] drawing by hand, with that I usually start offline, and then I move it to a digital platform like transferring photos to document the process.”
I: “I also work analogue, I write things in notebooks and I draw on paper.”
While Participant F expresses his creative processes as working better unplugged from technologies:
F: “Creativity and being disconnected definitely works better for me, and it is similar to other people, I love the state before falling asleep, that's when the best ideas appear.”
For other participants, the work environment is located purely in the digital world. Being disconnected has the possibility of no work while working means being available to the online world (Miksch and Schulz, 2018) similarly to being present in an office.
K: “I didn't realize it but I only work digitally, which is surprising because I like analogue as well.”
C: “I like the idea of taking some time offline to get inspired but I don't work like that. So it is easier to be online.”
A: “I am always connected to the internet when working because right now it is the actual office. So I wouldn't be able to do my work.”
Other participants voiced that for them, creativity is a very individual process, so WFH works for them even better as demonstrated by Participant C:
73 C: “I don't miss my colleagues' input; I prefer to work creatively on my own. Even before the corona crisis when I was supposed to be creative, I would use the home- office because I just work better creatively alone.”
Not as clear a view as seen in the quote by Participant C, was presented by Participant F who prefers individual creativity sometimes, and at other times appreciates the external stimulus offered by someone else's input.
F: “[I prefer to work creatively alone because] in a group there needs to be a leader which can be blocking [other's] creative process and might block you. But sometimes the input is important, so it depends.”
One participant did not see a change of creativity in the quality or quantity but rather in the time it comes more naturally to her:
I: “As a creative I also noticed that I am more creative in the morning now but when I worked in the office I was more creative in the afternoon. “
From the examples in this section discussing the internal influences on creativity we can see that as majority of influences on creativity are internal, they are not being affected by the current situation as much. In contrary, as creativity is a very internal process for some, being at home in a calm environment without colleagues works even better for some interviewees. The creativity connected to the processes was then the same (or better) as people were used to working digitally or in an analogue way (therefore the processes didn't change much) from times before they worked from their homes.
6.7.2 External influences on creativity
6.7.2.1 Person
Among the first external factor on creativity belongs 'person(ality)'. This refers both to the personality of the creative person, in which case it is an internal factor, or the person(ality) of others which are inspiring to some people, and in that case the influence would be external. In
74 the example presented by Participant G, he talks about the external type of influence, thus this category. Because of the creativity occurring in people, it can be inspiring for some to be in touch with certain individuals. This exchange can happen at the workplace where different creatives work, and as noted by Participant G, it is hard to reproduce in the online environment:
G: “I miss getting inspired by others. [Now] you don't get to live off of each other’s energies and bounce off ideas.”
In this sense, Participant G had a hard time to get inspired by the online representation of his colleagues, but he still noted that his creativity is the same as before.
6.7.2.2 Place (Social environment)
Creativity can also be very influenced by the 'place' or a 'social environment'. That is perhaps why it was important for many to work in non-disturbing places, which was achieved often with the aid of music in the previous work setup. However, for a few participants their previous workplaces offered creativity-stimulating environments due to the mixture of providing good physical qualities, and containing like-minded people as described by Participant H: H: “(My former place where I was working from) is a hub for like-minded people which is an intersection of public, academic and private sector which is also disconnecting home from work and is very creative and in that sense it helps being more creative and being more hands on.”
On the other hand, for Participant F, the more stimulating 'Place' was at home where he felt more comfortable: F: “The main difference for me is the feeling of comfort in your own habitat. In the office you share everything so you need to be quite respectful. Now I am more free and less anxious. At home you have the whole space in contrary to using a small space in the open office.”
75 Yet, the 'Place' at home can be also having negative influences on creativity as describe by Participant K who did not find that many inspiring objects in her work-from home and socially isolated environment. K: “I think it is harder to work creatively as I get much less stimuli.”
To conclude, the topic of creativity was slightly hard for my interviewees to reflect on. Questions around creativity led to very short answers of “it is the same for me” kind. Thus the reflections used were often taken from different conversation where the topic of creativity came up. This is the main reason why the analysis part on creativity is slightly shorter than the rest, as there were not that many quotes to interpret and analyse. However, drawing on the interviewees’ answers, they did not feel their creativity to be influenced by the novel situation in any considerable way except of those whose motivation improved and one participant (K) for whom creativity worsened.
76 7. Conclusion
The aim of this thesis was to explore the impact of the situation imposed by the spread of COVID-19 on people working in creative industries and their creative processes, and analyse the role of media in reconstructing their work and leisure spaces at home. This was done by conducting eleven interviews based on relevant theories on boundaries, regions, digital connections and creativity. These interviews were done with people working in the creative industry both in Sweden and the Czech Republic.
The impact was explored by asking the interviewees to assess and compare this situation with their previous way of work. Their creative processes were studied through their eyes, both comparing the ease of work individually or in a team and what impact they experienced on their creativity and the processes connected with it. The role of media was analysed through interviewees' behaviour in the front and back region.
When Turkle (2008) discussed conclusions from her interviews, she wrote that for people to regain time, they need to unplug (p.132), which she argues is not easy as the technologies to unplug from became extensions of our minds and bodies and being online is often part of some “social contract” which requires availability and responsibility.
The interviews I conducted 12 years after Turkle's showed that the interviewees' opinions were largely the same. Many participants had the urge to disconnect from their devices in order to access the back region. However, similarly to Turkle's case (2008), the connection was part of a social contract (or also a job contract), thus people still had the need to digitally communicate with their friends and families even though it was extending their screen time.
Furthermore, van Dijck (2015) explained that connectivity follows a longer historical trend towards re-shifting boundaries between private, corporate and public domains (p.12). It is however obvious from the responses, that people still need to have boundaries in order to relax. As such, when this is influencing the well-being of their employees, it should be an interest of the employers as well, as suggested in Fish (2017, p.362). Companies also need to find effective ways to communicate and spread team spirit, which in the long turn will be
77 beneficial for the whole remote-working sector. The majority of my interviewees were happy with their employers doing a good job in creating the feeling of belonging.
7.1 Answering Research question one
To answer the first Research question: How do the creatives handle the change from their regular work environment to the digitally connected yet socially isolated spaces at home?
For the majority, it was easier to focus in the WFH environment. Most of the people however were working more (perhaps also due to the higher focus) and some have had problems to stop working which was not ideal as it can lead to overworking or burnouts. Even though they were overworking, people noted (mostly) that they do enjoy working from home. In some cases, it offered more time on their hands which was beneficial for their work- life balance. Furthermore, participants tried to take out the positive from the situation. Participants who were not living alone in their households were handling the socially isolated situation well. Those who did not share a household (and living in Sweden) proceeded with socialising as it was an important part of their life and perhaps is not easily replaced by online connections. The work-related digital connections seemed to be mostly working for the participants, even creating a greater bond with their employers. As such, the notion of isolation did not prove to be largely influenced by the physical disconnection. The overriding factor for the participants was to see an effort from their employers in informing and creating online social opportunities.
To access the back region (and as such, handling the change of their work/leisure environment), the interviewees were doing a combination of different kinds of boundary segmentation. Different boundaries helped to diversify between different ritual states for work or leisure. The physical boundary segmentation included going to the nature or for a walk. The temporal boundary was achieved by allocating certain times for rest (such as lunch breaks or several breaks throughout the day). Finally, the mental boundary was set by focusing on other activities, such as hobbies, exercising or unplugging. Unplugging will be further discussed in the section below, as it is connected to the absence of media (and as such, connected to the Research question two). The combination of several boundaries was sometimes used, perhaps for achieving larger relaxation, such as physical and mental boundary combined.
78 7.2 Answering Research question two
RQ2: What role does the presence and absence of media have in reconstructing the creatives' work and leisure environment at home?
Many forms of media are filling the home environments of the participants, and as such were difficult to reflect on. However, more important than the presence of media was the potential absence of it. Especially in connection to reconstructing interviewees' environments. Disconnection (or unplugging) often acted as an opportunity to enter the back region, as the front region (work) was connected with being digitally present. Furthermore, music has had a large role especially before the WFH situation. Right now, the need for creating social exclusivity was not as needed, thus listening to music stopped being as important for many of the participants. To add, some interviewees were also accessing their back region either through intra- or intermedia ways of using their devices. As such, the media allowed to reshape the nature of the environment significantly (such as watching TV in the same room as where people are working).
7.3 Answering Research question three
RQ3: Do the creatives notice any impact on their creative processes caused by the changed situation in their digitally connected yet socially isolated homes?
For the majority of the respondents, to work creatively was easier or similar in the new WFH set up. This was influenced by a mixture of factors, including, that creativity is a rather internal matter, the 'climate' for work at home is often nicer and less distracting, and that the motivation can now be higher both because of the situation imposed by COVID-19 (and some creatives working on projects related to it) and because of the motivation of securing their jobs. Even though some participants voiced that they miss their colleagues' input, it didn't affect their level of creativity (except for one participant).
79 This novel situation imposed by COVID-19 seemed to provide many positive and unexpected factors together with challenges for the interviewees. It is possible, that due to health or economic factors work from home will be the work-setup of the future. As such, this thesis is perhaps beneficial in articulating the difficulties and advantages of the boundary integration and segmentation in a condensed space for people working within the creative industry.
80
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83 Grant, A. M., & Berry, J. W. (2011). The Necessity of Others is The Mother of Invention: Intrinsic and Prosocial Motivations, Perspective Taking, and Creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 54(1), 73–96. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.59215085 Haber, M. (2013, July 5). A Trip to Camp to Break a Tech Addiction. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/fashion/a-trip-to-camp-to-break-a- tech-addiction.html Hall, S. (1973). Encoding and decoding in the television discourse. Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham. Hansen, Anders (2010) Environment, Media and Communication, Routledge, ISBN10: 041542576X. Hart, H. (1959) Social Theory and Social Change, in L. Gross, (ed.), Symposium on Sociological Theory, New York: Harper & Row, 196-238. Henley, J. (2020, April 5). Sweden prepares for possible tighter coronavirus measures as deaths rise. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/sweden-prepares-to-tighten- coronavirus-measures-as-death-toll-climbs Herzog, T. R., Black, A. M., Fountaine, K. A., & Knotts, D. J. (1997). Reflection and attentional recovery as distinctive benefits of restorative environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 17(2), 165–170. https://doi.org/10.1006/jevp.1997.0051 Hesmondhalgh, D. (2013). The Cultural Industries (3rd Ed.). Hesmondhalgh, D. (2017). Capitalism and the media: Moral economy, well-being and capabilities. Media, Culture & Society, 39(2), 202–218. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716643153 Hesselberth, P. (2018). Discourses on disconnectivity and the right to disconnect. New Media & Society, 20(5), 1994–2010. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817711449 Jensen, K. B. (2002). A Handbook of Media and Communication Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies, 2nd Edition (Paperback) - Routledge [Text]. Routledge.Com; Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/A-Handbook-of-Media- and-Communication-Research-Qualitative-and- Quantitative/Jensen/p/book/9780415609661
84 Jiang, M. (2020). The reason Zoom calls drain your energy. BBC. Retrieved form https://www.bbc.com Kaun, A., & Schwarzenegger C. (2014). ‘No social media, less life?’ Online Dis- connection in Social Mediatized Worlds. First Monday 19(11): 5497. Kaun, A., & Treré, E. (2018). Repression, resistance and lifestyle: Charting (dis)connection and activism in times of accelerated capitalism. Social Movement Studies, 0(0), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2018.1555752 Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15(3), 169–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-4944(95)90001-2 Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 312 pages. ISBN: 0199256047 Liapis, A., Yannakakis, G. N., Alexopoulos, C., & Lopes, P. (n.d.). CAN COMPUTERS FOSTER HUMAN USERS’ CREATIVITY? THEORY AND PRAXIS OF MIXED- INITIATIVE CO-CREATIVITY. 17. Light, B. & Cassidy, E.(2014). Strategies for the Suspension and Prevention of Con- nection: Rendering Disconnection as Socioeconomic Lubricant with Facebook. New Media and Society 16(7): 1169-1184. Linville, P. W. (1985). Self-complexity and affective extremity: Don't put all of your eggs in one cognitive basket. Social Cognition, 3(1), 94–120. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.1985.3.1.94 Mangematin, V., Sapsed, J., & Schüßler, E. (2014). Disassembly and reassembly: An introduction to the Special Issue on digital technology and creative industries. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 83, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2014.01.002 Marwick, A. (2013). Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age. New Haven: Yale University Press. Marx, K. (1867). Capital-Volume-I.pdf. Progress Publishers. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Capital-Volume- I.pdf McIntyre, P. (2012), Creativity and Cultural Production: Issues for Media Practice (Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan) vii, 233 p.
85 McLuhan, M. (2003). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw-Hill. Meyrowitz, Joshua (1985). No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504231-3. Miksch, L., & Schulz, C. (2018). Disconnect to Reconnect: The Phenomenon of Digital Detox as a Reaction to Technology Overload. http://lup.lub.lu.se/student- papers/record/8944615 Miller, V. (2008). New Media, Networking and Phatic Culture. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 14(4), 387–400. Moores, S. (2012) Media, Place and Mobility, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Mumford, M. D. (2003). Where have we been, where are we going? Taking stock in creativity research. Creativity Research Journal 15, 107–120. Mumford, M. D., & Simonton, D. K. (1997). Creativity in the Workplace: People, Problems, and Structures. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 31(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1997.tb00776.x Nippert-Eng, C. (1996). Calendars and keys: The classification of "home" and "work". Sociological Forum 11, no. 3 (September): 563-582.
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Portwood-Stacer, L. (2013). Social Media Refusal and Conspicuous Non-Consumption: The Performative and Political Dimensions of Facebook Abstention. New Media & Society 15(7): 1,041-1,057. Portwood-Stacer, L. (2012). How We Talk About Social Media Refusal Part 2: Asceti- cism.” FlowTV. Accessed November 14. http://flowtv.org/2012/09/social media- abstinence-part-2-asceticism/ Rhodes, M. (1961). An Analysis of Creativity. The Phi Delta Kappan, 42(7), 305–310. JSTOR. Robson, C.(2011). Real world research: a resource for users of social research methods in applied settings (3rd ed.). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Sayer, A. (2011). Why Things Matter to People: Social Science, Values and Ethical Life. Cambridge
86 University Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sodertorn/detail.action?docID=667639 Scannell, P. (1996). Radio, television and modern life: A phenomenological approach. Oxford, MA: Blackwell.Shalley, C. E., & Zhou, J. (2008). Organizational creativity research: A historical overview. Handbook of Organizational Creativity. Shumate, M., & Fulk, J. (2016). Boundaries and Role Conflict When Work and Family are Colocated: A Communication Network and Symbolic Interaction Approach: Human Relations. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726704042714 Silvia, P. J., & Beaty, R. E. (2012). Making creative metaphors: The importance of fluid intelligence for creative thought. Intelligence, 40(4), 343–351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2012.02.005 Stockfelt, O. (1988). Musik som lyssnandets konst: En analys av W.A. Mozarts symfoni No 40, g moll K.550. [Music as the art of listening. An analysis of W.A. Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, g moll K550] Göteborg: Skrifter från Musikvetenskapliga institutionen Göteborg: 18. Strömbäck, J., Djerf-Pierre, M., & Shehata, A. (2013). The dynamics of political interest and news media consumption: A longitudinal perspective. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 25(4), 414–435. Sutton, T. (2017). Disconnect to reconnect: The food/technology metaphor in digital detoxing. First Monday. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v22i6.7561 Syvertsen, T., & Enli, G. (2019). Digital detox: Media resistance and the promise of authenticity. Convergence. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856519847325 Syvertsen, T. (2017). Media Resistance: Protest, Dislike, Abstention. Throsby, C. D. (2001). Economics and culture. Cambridge University Press. Turkle, S. (2008). Always-On/Always-On-You: The Tethered Self, in: Katz, J.E. (Ed.), Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies. The MIT Press, pp. 121–138. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262113120.003.0010 Upwork (2019). Freelancing in America: 2019 Survey. Retrieved from https://www.upwork.com/i/freelancing-in-america/ van Dijck, J. (2013). Read: The Culture of Connectivity. https://www-dawsonera- com.till.biblextern.sh.se/readonline/9780199970797
87 van Dijck, J. (2015). After Connectivity: The Era of Connectication. Social Media + Society, 1(1), 2056305115578873. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115578873 Velikovsky, J. T. (2012). StoryAlity #6 – What is creativity – and How Does It Work? StoryAlity. Retrieved from https://storyality.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/what-is-creativity-and-how- does-it-work/ Statista (2020). Number of self-employed freelancers by profession Germany 2019. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/946340/number-self-employed-freelance- professions-germany/ Woodstock, L. (2014). Media Resistance: Opportunities for Practice Theory and New Media Research. International Journal of Communication, 8(0), 19.
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88 9. Appendix
Appendix 1: Interview questions
Hello, firstly thank you for agreeing to participate on this interview.
To start, I want to approve with you that you work as a XXX right?
What is your household situation (such as living alone,...)
Talk freely about anything that you can think of in connection to covid and you or your work.
Overall reflection on the extreme state + Comparison
What was your original work set up? (work hours, place)
When you compare the earlier and current set up, can you think of any positive aspects of the current sit.?
Can you think of any negative aspects? if there are many positive aspects: Would you like to keep working from home like this?
Would you say you work now more hours? If yes, why is that?
Do digital and real life connections…. provide enough connectedness in their connectivity? What work real life social connections do you miss the most, if there are any?
How do you prefer now to communicate with your work? Why?
Do you still feel connected to your company/firm/employer? Why?
89
Are there any private real life social connections you miss now?
don't miss: Would you say you prefer digital contact personally and professionally? Why?
How do you prefer now to communicate with your friends or family? Why?
In the pre-corona times, did you used to feel the urge/pressure to always do something?
If yes- How do you feel in this situation when there are less outdoor stimulants?
Rituals. Exploring the regions and frames in creatives' homes. Please describe how do you start working each day. Any particular rituals?
And how do you mark the end of your work day?
Do you change rooms/spaces when working or resting?
Would you change them if you would have the possibility?
Did you do any changes to your interior after the social isolation? If yes, what?
Do you have any special music you listen to when you work? Is it different from when you don't work?
Do you use any media for only leisure or only work (such as tv)?
Leisure and work. Is the back region accessed through unplugging? Do you feel it is easier/same/harder to disconnect from work in the new situation? Why?
What do you do when you want to shut off work completely?
90 and What do you do when you want to recharge from work?
What is the biggest difference in your workweek and weekend?
If you exercise to relax, would you say you are exercising now more than before this change?
Creativity. Is their ability to perform creatively affected positively/negatively? Do you miss your colleagues input on your creativity? Why?
In comparison to your earlier work set-up, do you find it easier or harder to work creatively now? Why?
Are you always working plugged-in or are you having moments of disconnection? plugged/disconnect- Do you find it easier to work creatively like that?
Is there anything you are doing now and would like to take with you after when things go back to “normal”?
Anything else I didn't ask about? and you would like to add?
91 Appendix 2: Information letter and consent form
Information for participants in studies conducted by a student as part of their programme.
Contact information for the students and supervisor: School of Culture and Education, programme in Media, Communication and Cultural Analysis.
The student: Lucie Váňová
The supervisor: Staffan Ericson
Data controller: The survey/student project is conducted as part of the students’ education at Södertörn University, which is legally liable for the students’ processing of personal data. You can always contact Södertörn University via e-mail: [email protected] or by calling +46 (0)8 608 4000.
Data protection officer: If you have questions or complaints about how your personal data is processed, you are welcome to contact Södertörn University’s data protection officer via [email protected]. The data protection officer is an expert on the rules about personal data and has the right to review how the university’s staff and students process personal data.
Legal basis: Your personal data is processed in accordance with your informed consent. Participation in the study is entirely voluntary. You may withdraw your consent at any time without providing a reason, though this does not affect the processing that occurred before your withdrawal.
Recipients of personal data: All personal data that come to our knowledge will be processed so that unauthorised persons cannot access them.
Storage period: Personal data will be stored until the essay has received a pass grade and will then be destroyed.
Rights: According to the EU General Data Protection Regulation, you are entitled to find out what data about you is processed and when necessary have any errors corrected, free of charge. You may also request erasure, limitations or object to the processing of personal data
Complaints: You may always send complaints to the Swedish Data Protection Authority. You can email them at: [email protected] or call them on +46 (0)8 657 6100.
Kind regards,
Lucie Váňová (Student)
Media, Communication and Cultural Analysis School of Culture and Education
Södertörn University
92
Consent form
Consent to participate in the study: Exploring the impact of Covid-19 on creatives and their processes together with an analysis of the role of media in reconstructing their work and leisure spaces at home.
I have been informed about the study in writing and I consent to participating. I am aware that my participation is entirely voluntary and that I can withdraw my participation in the study without providing a reason.
...... Signature
...... Name in print, Place and date
Supervisor: Staffan Ericson; Student conducting the research: Lucie Váňová
93 Appendix 3: List of theoretical concepts
3.1 Connectivity versus connectedness (RQ1, RQ2)
Connectivity versus connectedness (Van Dijck, 2013): Digital connectivity versus human, social connectedness.
Isolation (Blauner, 1964): Isolation as in lack of connectedness is one of four different kinds of alienations from work.
3.2 Front region and back region (RQ1, RQ2)
Front region & back region (Goffman, 1956): Places marked by boundaries which are either physical (home, work) or mental. Front region: The public region which is associated with work and less personal and intimate interactions. Back region: Is associated with family and close friends where people can drop off their professionality. Backstage control: Describes the difficulties of clashing both regions Ritual state (Goffman, 1959): The way we behave and find appropriate in the given situation. Keying (Goffman, 1974): Switch within the ritual state which is subtle but meaningful (e.g. switching radio off/on).
3.3 Boundary theory (RQ1, RQ2)
Boundary theory (Ashforth et al., 2000, Clark 2000, Nippert-Eng, 1996) Is similar to the theory of regions and frames by both Goffman and Bengtsson with slight differences. Segmentation and integration (Nippert-Eng 1996) of different boundaries (e.g. between work and leisure) depending on the person's abilities and preferences. Physical boundary: The actual physical boundary (e.g. kitchen corner for work).
94 Temporal boundary: Boundary with a time frame (e.g. rest for 30 minutes). Psychological boundary: Mental will to dedicate time to work, leisure or other.
3.4 Transformations between ritual states (RQ1, RQ2) Transformations between ritual states (Bengtsson, 2006) Different ways for accessing switches between ritual states and regions. Interested in the contribution of media in creating and shifting between symbolic spaces (e.g. work/leisure) in both material and mental respect to which people attribute appropriate behaviour. Geographical transformation: The act of an actual change of location from one room to another or from home to office.
Intermedia transformation: Changing frames through different media (e.g. computer for work and television for relax).
Intramedia transformation: Changing frames within one medium (e.g. doing work on computer and then on the same computer watch a TV series).
Music used for different exclusivity (Stockfelt, 1988) The use of music for ‘keying’. Used also to create socially exclusive environments.
3.5 Reasons to disconnect from media (RQ1, RQ2) Reasons to disconnect from media (Woodstock, 2014) Regaining control Establishing boundaries Resisting information overload Establishing greater personal life balance
3.6 Creativity (RQ3) Creativity is “an idea or product that is original, valued and implemented” (Csikszentmihalyi and Wolfe 2000, p. 81)
95
Seven Ps: Places where creativity can occur: Person(ality), Process, Product, Place, Potential, Persuasion and Press. (Velikovsky, 2012)
Influences on creativity (Amabile, 2012): Internal factors: Domain-relevant skills Creativity-relevant processes Intrinsic task motivation External factor: Social environment
96