Intersections of Mobility and Belonging : Blogging Subjectivities of Finns on the Move

Abstract

As components of the contemporary experience, mobility and displacement (Appadurai 1990; Said 2002) are accompanied by our need to belong: while global mobility is encouraged by and expected from the educated ex-pats and temporary workers, the “flows” of migrants cause “debates, challenges, and crises” in the European nation-states (Skey 2014). Yet, in the novel interest in digital mobilities, the analysis of personal experiences has been left aside. In this article, the focus is on affective accounts of mobility and belonging. The autobiographical narratives published in the blogosphere are analyzed to shed light on the processes of multi-sited place attachments. The analysis of intersecting mobilities rests on the divergent experiences based on, for example, geographical, gendered, ethnic, age-related, class, or economic differences of the bloggers, mainly Finnish exchange students, travelers, and (spouses of) ex-pats. Analyzing individual digital narratives brings forth the varying experiences and processes of belonging and emphasizes the spatially, temporally, and experientially multidimensional character of mobility and belonging and the localities and situatedness of mobile actors. This analysis of mobility blogs emphasizes the increasing role of the Internet in producing translocal belonging and the centrality of places in self-understanding and meaning-making.