Work

The Performative Power of Digital Nursing Platforms: Norms, Values and Identities in Alternative Work Realities

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT Feminised sectors such as healthcare are underrepresented in labour platform research. This study focuses on emerging platforms for licensed nurses and combines a multimodal analysis of the promotional materials of 12 Dutch nursing platforms with interviews with platform directors and representatives. Our analysis shows how nursing platforms construct ‘alternative work realities’ that include features of seamless integration of work and private life, individualism, quantifiable professionalism and a predictable workforce. We demonstrate how interplays of modes, such as text, layout and interaction options, make the alternatives experiential and relatable for both nurses and care organisations, granting them performative power. By making alternative work settings relatable and accessible, nursing platforms introduce novel norms, values and identities to nursing work, thereby engaging in governance of work. This enables nurses to renegotiate traditional norms of self‐sacrifice and altruism, yet it simultaneously normalises new forms of unpaid work and social and economic risks.

Source: New Technology Work and Employment

DOI: 10.1111/ntwe.12334

Authors: Justien Dingelstad, Francisca Grommé, Iris Wallenburg

Institution: Erasmus University Rotterdam

Language: English

Topic: Digital Economy and Work Transformation

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Gender equality, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,980