READ ME File For 'Dataset supporting the thesis “Narrating the new world of work: gig economy, career transitions, and work–nonwork boundaries in content creation”'

Dataset DOI: https://doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/D3880

ReadMe Author: Qingyang Xu, University of Southampton, ORCID ID: 0009-0006-3370-4604

This dataset supports the thesis entitled 
Narrating the new world of work: gig economy, career transitions, and work–nonwork boundaries in content creation

AWARDED BY: Univeristy of Southampton
DATE OF AWARD: 2026

DESCRIPTION OF THE DATA
This dataset forms part of the research data supporting the thesis Narrating the new world of work: gig economy, career transitions, and work–nonwork boundaries in content creation.

The dataset includes supporting materials generated during the qualitative analysis, such as participant demographic summaries, analytic documentation, and codebooks used in the interpretation of narrative and netnographic data.

Sensitive or identifiable raw research data (e.g., interview recordings or full transcripts) are not included in this dataset due to ethical and confidentiality considerations.

The materials included in this dataset provide transparency about the analytical procedures and coding structures used in the research and allow readers to understand how the key findings reported in the thesis were developed.

No specialised software is required to view the files; they are provided in standard formats.

This dataset contains:

Table1_participant_demographics
Demographic characteristics of participants involved in the career transition study.

Table2_data_analysis_process
Summary of the data analysis stages used in the career transition study.

Table3_codebook_career_transition
Codebook used in analysing interview narratives of career transitions into online content creation.

Table4_netnography_sample_characteristics
Overview of online content creators included in the netnography study, including descriptive information about creators and sampled videos.

Table5_codebook_netnography
Codebook used in analysing the netnographic data on work–nonwork boundaries in online content creation.


Date of data collection: 2022-2024

Information about geographic location of data collection: 
Interviews were conducted remotely with participants based in multiple locations. The study focused on online content creators operating on global social media platforms.

Licence:
Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Related projects/Funders:
This research was conducted as part of a PhD research project at the University of Southampton.

Related publication:
Xu, Q. (2026). Narrating the new world of work: gig economy, career transitions, and work–nonwork boundaries in content creation. PhD thesis, University of Southampton.


Date that the file was created: March, 2026