Sun, L orcid.org/0000-0002-0102-8801, Liu, T and Wang, W (2023) Working from Home in Urban China during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Assemblages of Work-Family Interference. Work, Employment and Society, 37 (1). pp. 157-175. ISSN 0950-0170
Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of workers globally have been forced to work from home. Empirical data from Chinese cities in the Hubei province reveal work productivity decreased among many respondents working from home in 2020, primarily due to family interference with work. Such interference stems not only from the domain of daily life but also from other family members’ e-working and e-learning. Conversely, respondents’ work interferes with family; thus, interference operates bi-directionally. This article proposes an analytical framework of work-family interference along three dimensions: work-daily life, work-work, work-study, and each dimension can be understood through four distinct aspects: temporality, physicality, vocality, digitality. Remote workers encounter ‘assemblages of work-family interference’, consisting of a heterogeneous mixture of these dimensions and aspects. Furthermore, some factors (e.g., living patterns, work culture, digital infrastructure) constrain effective work-family boundary management among urban households.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage) |
Keywords: | assemblages, boundary theory, COVID-19, urban China, work-family interference, working from home |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Sociology and Social Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 09 Jun 2022 11:12 |
Last Modified: | 07 Nov 2024 15:50 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/09500170221080870 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:187628 |