A sociomaterial approach to the enactment of academics’ work/non-work boundaries in the UK Higher Education.

Abstract

The rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT) and its embeddedness in everyday academic practices have challenged the assumed separatedness between the work and the non-work domains of life. This paper aims to understand how organisational ICT practices shape the enactment of academics’ work/non-work boundaries (WNwB) by addressing the entanglements between social and material entities in the performativity of work practices. The disruptions, challenges and opportunities triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a great opportunity to understand the continual configurations of WNwB enactment in practice. Data for this study comprised semi-structured interviews with academics and members of the IT team at a UK university and relevant organisational policies. Through the use of thematic analysis, it was found that the ongoing transformations in work practices, policies, and academics’ engagement with ICT have been either supporting the separation of WNwB in practice or facilitating their blurring.