Backpaking lifestyle
a part of me and my lifestyle, and I don’t even know in a sense different.
In several cases, extended travel was socially condoned by the participants’ parents for its
perceived educational value, a discourse linking back to the 18th century European Grand
Tour (Loker-Murphy & Pearce, 1995). These participants often further mobilised an emotive
explanation in justifying enduring involvement with travel. This materialised in privileging a
vocabulary of neo-nomadism (see D’Andrea, 2007), in which some participants deeply felt
their peregrinations reflected their nature, as well as how they were nurtured: ‘I truly feel in
my soul I’m nomadic. This is why I can’t pinpoint it [why he travels], because it’s just in my
blood, the same reason why birds fly south for winter’ (Thomas, English, 29). Participants
frequently invoked a discourse of lifestyle in describing and justifying their mobilities.
annaabi.ee 
