The fluid worker’s Odyssey: from Taylorism to digital nomadism

Purpose This study aims to frame digital nomadism as the most contemporary and paradigmatic manifestation of fluid work within Bauman's liquid modernity. By employing a historical-theoretical lens, it connects the transition from Fordism to post-Fordism with the rise of digital and platform capitalism to delineate the labor conditions under which digital nomadism emerges and operates. Design/methodology/approach This is a historical and conceptual study anchored in Bauman's liquid modernity. Drawing on Bauman, we distill three analytic anchors, liquidity, uncertainty, and mobility, and use them as our analytical framework. We trace the shift from Fordism to post-Fordism and examine the enabling mechanisms of digital capitalism, the gig economy, and platform capitalism by mapping each onto this framework. We then apply the same framework to digital nomadism as a contemporary manifestation of fluid work and derive implications for HR policy and social protection. Findings Interpreting digital nomadism through Bauman's framework positions it as a contemporary expression of fluid work arising at the intersection of post-Fordist flexibility and platform-mediated governance. The interplay of liquidity (loosening long-term attachments), mobility (work decoupled from fixed times and places), and uncertainty (thinner protections and re-individualized risk) structures the phenomenon, explaining how autonomy and precarity are co-produced. Originality/value The study repositions digital nomadism as a form of fluid work rather than merely a lifestyle trend, integrates a coherent historical lineage with Bauman's framework, and provides a unified account that foregrounds the coexistence of autonomy and precarity while linking theory to a clear agenda for future research and organizational practice.