Abstract:
This research is concerned with the phenomenon of backpacking in Europe. The main interest is to trace the production of a European space of travelling and how movements, practices and representations of backpackers create it. In order to show the multilayer and transnational processes of virtual and physical mobility I work with Jana Binder's concept of "travellerscapes". The essential methods I applied to find out how "the European travellerscape" is formatted by travelers and hostel networks were media analyses, participant observation in a hostel in Berlin and interviews with backpackers and experts. In this paper I will pay particular attention to the hostel as a social meeting place and location of symbolical signs. The results of my research indicate that hostels frame a "coordinate system" in which travelers move flexibly but with certain routines. In Europe the most frequented and represented spots are (predominantly western) metropolises and "cultural high points" like Berlin, Paris, London, Prague, Stockholm and Barcelona.

Keywords: backpacking, hostel, Europe, globality, travellerscape

Leseprobe (pdf)