A life in corridors: social perspectives on aeromobility and work in knowledge organisations

This paper explores international work related travel in knowledge organisations and present the result of a case study carried out in two Danish knowledge organisations. It argues that work in international knowledge organisations can not be understood separate from aeromobility organised though a big material system of corridors. However, the article also shows that the knowledge workers approach such systems of corridors differently and produce different patterns of aeromobility. Therefore the social consequences of ‘a life in corridors' are also experienced differently. For some knowledge workers aeromobility means new opportunities to network, to combine work and pleasure, to develope a cosmopolitan identity, to play at new places etc.; but for others, it involves a great deal of frustrations and ambivalences in relation to cope with work, family, leisure, localities, belongings in-between the global and local. In conclusion the paper therefore focuses on the necessity of a critical view on the idea of the happy cosmopolitan who lives a carefree life on the move in further research of aeromobility and work.