#Poshboss: An Ecological Ethnography of Digital Hustling

Against the backdrop of increasingly unstable jobs and labour market conditions, digital hustling has emerged as an alternative, utilising digital platforms to earn income. This dissertation is an ecological ethnographic investigation of digital hustling on various platforms, including reselling on Poshmark and creating content on social media. Departing from studies that situate work on a single platform, this dissertation investigates hustling as a constant pursuit of opportunities across multiple platforms. The findings tell a story of digital hustling through three dynamics: intensification, normalisation and migration. Intensification discusses how the resource of time becomes micro and multi-tasked. Intensification renders every minute, and even second, an opportunity for monetisation. Normalisation describes how a vast content-creation universe visibilises digital hustling, normalising it as a form of entrepreneurship in the process. Migration describes how digital hustling has a dynamic of continual movement to new arenas. Because of the unique nature of digital technology, this does not mean hustling moves as a distinct event but continually grows into new spaces, remaining where it once was. In sum, the dissertation demonstrates that digital hustling is becoming mainstream for people who were previously protected from it. The study has three main implications for the literature on hustling. Firstly, it demonstrates that hustling is connected to the conventional labour market. Secondly, it shows the ways platforms formalise hustling. Finally, it demonstrates hustling as a collective project of world-building. The study also includes three contributions to the field of platform work. Here, it demonstrates the importance of studying hustling across categories and types, including content creation, and understanding how this changes the quality of hustling. Secondly, it underlines the importance of empathy and understanding hustlers within their ecology. Finally, it questions the assumption that jobs are the answer for gig workers, instead suggesting this is conditional on the specific ecology.