Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to investigate emergent practices of mobile worklife by foregrounding first-person accounts of how mobile knowledge workers (MKWs) is practiced and accounted for by MKW themselves. It examines the overlooked but ceaseless practices of crafting liveable worklives in three emblematic sectors of MKW: academia, Information Communication Technology management, and digital creative work. The book examines MKWrs’ sociomaterial practices of mobility with particular reference to their relatively privileged labour market positioning and the gendered dimensions of MKW. Post-Fordism is linked with an expansion in women’s employment and the idea that labour market participation is a moral duty and marker of good citizenship, including good motherhood. Childcare provision was left to the market despite the exponential growth in labour market participation of mothers with young children.