Mobile neighbouring

Abstract

The article theorizes the tourist dwelling at a conjunction of philosophy, social theory, tourism research, architecture and design in order to configure a conceptual framework for responsible and creative forms of encounters between tourists in material settings. It asks: What kind of social coexistence could the design of the tourist dwelling afford tourists? The main conclusion drawn from the theoretical analysis is that the tourist dwelling needs to be ‘un-designed’ by a novel conceptual approach to reach its potential in the mobile, material and social formations of dwelling-nearby with strangers. A novel theoretical conceptualization of mobile neighbouring is put forward as an ethical ontology and materialized sociality that will pave a way for thinking tourism in the post-host-guest societies of the future.

Key words:

• Tourism
• Dwelling
• Mobility
• Neighbour
• Accommodation
• Ethics
• Ontology
• Sociology
• Design
• Architecture

Acknowledgements

The first version of the article was presented at AAG (Association of American Geographers) Annual Meeting in New York, USA. 24th–28th February 2012, in the session: ‘(Im)Mobilities of Dwelling: Places and Practices’, under the name Falin and Veijola, ‘Redesigning the Tourist Dwelling’. For valuable comments on later drafts we want to thank especially the anonymous reviewers of Mobilities as well as Jennie Germann Molz, Suvi Alt and Michael C. Hall.

Additional information

Funding

Funding. This work was supported by the grants from the University of Lapland strategic funding for planning the project ‘Acapella Village: Designing Future Communities for Future Societies’ (2011–2012) and The Foundations’ Professor Pool in Finland (2012–2013).