Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations and tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The beauty of speed or the cross of mobility? Introductory reflections on the aesth/ethics of space, justice and motion
- Part I
- Part II
- 5 The bodily basis of control in technically aided movement
- 6 What modes of moving do to me – reflections on technogenic processes of identification
- 7 Global vagabonds, place and the self: the existential dimension of mobility
- Part III
- Index
7 - Global vagabonds, place and the self: the existential dimension of mobility
from Part II
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations and tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The beauty of speed or the cross of mobility? Introductory reflections on the aesth/ethics of space, justice and motion
- Part I
- Part II
- 5 The bodily basis of control in technically aided movement
- 6 What modes of moving do to me – reflections on technogenic processes of identification
- 7 Global vagabonds, place and the self: the existential dimension of mobility
- Part III
- Index
Summary
Introduction
You might expect a pilgrimage or a ritual activity to end in an ecstatic, or otherwise sweeping and profound, experience; pilgrimages are, after all, characterized by an experience of spiritual transformation (Gothóni 1993). Movements and ways of moving are important dimensions of human spirituality. Religious studies recognize a complex reciprocal interaction between ways of moving, the environment and human experience: ‘ritual-like behaviour demonstrates the importance of the body and its way of moving in space and time. The body acts within an environment that appears to require it to respond in certain ways’ (Bell 1997: 139).
Is this reciprocal interaction typical of religion only, or is it a more general feature of human existence, that is, a complex interplay between place, moving and the human self? In this article I suggest that we need to account for an existential dimension of mobility. The concept ‘existential place’ describes a transformative potential in the relationship between place and the human self that is significant for the understanding of mobility. It suggests that mobility, moving and movements correspond with a deep-seated human relatedness, which thus can influence one's worldview.
This is, however, a broad topic. In the following I shall focus mainly on international work-related mobility in industrial projects. International work-related mobility is not just exotic adventures, fancy hotels and high salaries. Because of their continuous mobility – the intensification of time and place – global vagabonds lose their relatedness to specific places.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Spaces of MobilityThe Planning, Ethics, Engineering and Religion of Human Motion, pp. 155 - 176Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2008