Backpaking lifestyle
’ A further
cosmopolitan claim was staked by Adam (Israeli, 25):
I wanted to see other ways of living, to see if my way of living is the right way, to
meet people from all over the world, to see what the outside world is about and to
expand my way of thinking.
Whilst these perspectives do convey a cosmopolitan sensibility, the notion of cross-
cultural mobility engendering cosmopolitanism has been subject to intense scrutiny. Skrbis,
Kendall and Woodward (2004) remind us that behind the abstract ideal of cosmopolitanism
often lurks the privileges of wealth and citizenship of the mobile elite, whilst John Urry warns
in an interview with Blok (2005, p. 81) that to position one as cosmopolitan is to try to
produce ‘superior cultural capital over and against others’. Andreas (Swedish, 25), for
example, used his consumption of ‘exotic’ foods as a way to try to distinguish himself from
annaabi.ee 
