Congratulations to Jim!

Congratulations to Jim Ang on the research award of £162,689 from EPSRC for “Creativity Greenhouse: Digital Brain Switch. Achieving Work/Life Balance in a Digitally Dependent World”.
The rise in the use of digital technologies challenges work life boundaries, particularly as individuals increasingly work from a range of locations, experience frequent interruptions and feel required to ‘stay connected’ through multiple communication channels. The key question to be explored in this project is: How do modern communications affect our ability to manage transitions across work life boundaries? Does technology support us to manage transitions more flexibly, creating more permeable boundaries and a less segmented persona, or does it encourage leakage across boundaries and a difficult identity management task.
This multi-institutional project (Lancaster University, Royal Holloway, Open University and University of Kent) funded by the EPSRC will undertake an in-depth study of how people manage switches both in the corporeal and digital worlds, focusing on the role of modern communications and their impact on switching practices. The project will develop a social platform that will allow people to capture their switching experiences and to reflect with others on how they manage them. The project will also develop a number of interventions designed to explore how digital technologies can support people to manage switches.