We theorize mobile knowledge workers’ uses of digital and material resources in support of their working practices. We do so to advance current conceptualizations of both “information infrastructures” and “digital assemblages” as elements of contemporary knowledge work. We focus on mobile knowledge workers as they are (increasingly) self-employed (e.g., as freelancers, entrepreneurs, temporary workers, and contractors), competing for work, and collaborating with others: one likely future of work that we can study empirically. To pursue their work, mobile knowledge workers draw together collections of commodity digital technologies or digital assemblages (e.g., laptops, phones, public WiFi, cloud storage, and apps), relying on a reservoir of knowledge about new and emergent means to navigate this professional terrain. We find that digital assemblages are created and repurposed by workers in their infrastructuring practices and in response to mobility demands and technological environments. In their constitution, they are generative to both collaborative and organizational goals. Building from this, we theorize that digital assemblages, as individuated forms of information infrastructure, sustain stability and internal cohesion even as they allow for openness and generativity.

我们将移动知识工作者对数字和物质资源的使用理论化以支持他们的工作实践。我们这样做是为了推进作为当代知识工作要素的“信息基础设施”和“数字组合”的当前概念化。我们关注移动知识工作者，因为他们（越来越）自雇（例如，作为自由职业者、企业家、临时工和承包商）、竞争工作和与他人合作：我们可以实证研究的一种可能的未来工作。为了开展工作，移动知识工作者将商品数字技术或数字组合（例如笔记本电脑、手机、公共 WiFi、云存储和应用程序）的集合汇集在一起​​，依靠关于新的和紧急的手段的知识库来驾驭这个专业地形。我们发现，数字组合是由工人在其基础设施实践中创建和重新利用的，以响应移动需求和技术环境。在他们的章程中，他们对协作和组织目标产生影响。以此为基础，我们将数字组合作为信息基础设施的个性化形式，即使在允许开放性和生成性的情况下，也能维持稳定性和内部凝聚力。