About Dave Cook

Dave is a PhD researcher in the Anthropology Department at UCL (University College London). His research interests include the future of work, the gig economy, remote work, globalisation, neoliberalism and design cultures. He is conducting ethnographic fieldwork on digital nomadism and location-independent work, in South East Asia. Dave has worked as a journalist, designer HCI specialist and ethnographer. He is director of the design consultancy What People Want.

Posts by Dave Cook:

Digital nomads are starting to price out local communities around the world

Digital nomads are starting to price out local communities around the world

Remote working: how a surge in digital nomads is pricing out local communities around the world. For eight years I have studied digital nomadism, the millennial trend for working remotely from anywhere around the world. I am often asked if digital nomads are driving gentrification. Before COVID upended the way we work, I would usually tell journalists that the numbers were too small for a definitive answer. Most digital nomads were travelling and working illegally on tourist visas. It was a niche phenomenon. Three years into the pandemic, however, I am no longer sure. More →

Remote working has a number of hidden risks

Remote working has a number of hidden risks

Many of us have had little choice but to resort to remote working in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. It is just days since Google, Apple and Twitter were making headlines by ordering their employees to work from home, but you could now say the same about lots of companies. More →