When Digital Technologies Enable and Threaten Occupational Identity: The Delicate Balancing Act of Data Scientists

MIS Quarterly ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 1087-1112
Author(s):  
Emmanuelle Vaast ◽  
Alain Pinsonneault ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Online Community ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Critical Case ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Occupational Identity ◽  
Dialectical Process ◽  
Optimal Distinctiveness ◽  
Critical Case Study

Occupations are increasingly embedded with and affected by digital technologies. These technologies both enable and threaten occupational identity and create two important tensions: they make the persistence of an occupation possible while also potentially rendering it obsolete, and they magnify both the similarity and distinctiveness of occupations with regard to other occupations. Based on the critical case study of an online community dedicated to data science, we investigate longitudinally how data scientists address the two tensions of occupational identity associated with digital technologies and reach transient syntheses in terms of “optimal distinctiveness” and “persistent extinction.” We propose that identity work associated with digital technologies follows a composite life-cycle and dialectical process. We explain that people constantly need to adjust and redefine their occupational identity, i.e., how they define who they are and what they do. We contribute to scholarship on digital technologies and identity work by illuminating how people deal in an ongoing manner with digital technologies that simultaneously enable and threaten their occupational identity.

Adaptation Trajectories of Dismissed Workers: A Critical Case Study of the Lithuanian Radio-Electronics Sector

2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702110412
Author(s):  
Žilvinas Martinaitis ◽  
Audronė Sadauskaitė ◽  
Mariachiara Barzotto
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Critical Case ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Sociology Of Work ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Radio Electronics ◽  
Economic Shock ◽  
Critical Case Study

This article explores why some dismissed workers adapt successfully to the changing structure of an economy, while others remain trapped in low-quality jobs and experience deskilling. The associated case study relies on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 50 former employees of four bankrupt radio-electronics factories in Lithuania. It is found that workers with ‘inherited’ skills that are deep and technical are able to enter high-quality jobs when new firms emerge, recombining the physical, financial and human assets of destitute factories for new productive uses. However, if such economic opportunities are scarce, workers with inherited broad skill sets are relatively more successful in transitioning to services from manufacturing. Further, in line with the literature of the sociology of work, women and older workers are found to face more acute challenges in adapting to the economic shock associated with dismissal.

scholarly journals Quotations in Maximus the Greek’s “Dispute on the Avowed Monastic Life” Revisited

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxim Gavrilkov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Case ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
Monastic Life ◽  
Critical Case Study

The paper approaches Maximus the Greek’s polemical work both from the text-critical and functional perspectives. The text-critical case study reveals a new, refi ned and most complete attribution of biblical and patristic quotations and their thematic division. Restructuring quotations so that they form the “Salvation Ladder” demonstrates presence of the main imperative of Christian culture in the text.

Imagining my ideal: a critical case study of digital storytelling as reflective practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Skidmore Coggin ◽  
Sharon Daley ◽  
Jackie Sydnor ◽  
Tammi R. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Reflective Practice ◽  
Critical Case ◽  
Digital Storytelling ◽  
Critical Case Study

Intercultural learning in schools through telecollaboration? A critical case study of eTwinning between Turkey and Germany

2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (7) ◽  
pp. 677-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çiğdem Bozdağ
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Critical Case ◽  
Project Design ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Intercultural Learning ◽  
School Cultures ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
German School ◽  
Critical Case Study

Digital media offer various possibilities for internet-based telecollaboration in schools and open up a space for intercultural learning. Diverse initiatives like such as the European Union-initiative eTwinning network aim to support telecollaboration projects in education. This article argues that we need to develop critical and grounded understanding of telecollaboration projects and how they are being embedded in the context of existing school cultures. The article presents an in-depth case study of a telecollaboration project between a Turkish and a German school. On the basis of observations in schools, interviews with teachers and focus groups with pupils, the article argues that there are two main challenges that limit the experience of intercultural learning in the analysed project. The first point is about the strong teacher-centred project design and the discrepancy between the perspectives of teachers and pupils. The second point is the rather simplistic and superficial understanding of culture, which reasserts national cultures instead of promoting a more open perspective, that influences the project tasks and topics.

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