Staging interrail mobilities

Abstract

This article applies the multiscalar 'staging mobilities' framework from the emergent subfield of mobilities design to analyse an enduring European rail travel phenomenon, interrail. This discussion extends and contributes to tourism mobilities research. Second, the article enriches previous studies of rail travel, by exploring how interrail travel is embedded in, and (im)mobilised by socio-material environments and institutional design decisions. More precisely, it explores the affordances of three objects that shape interrail mobility: the interrail pass, the RailPlanner application and seat reservations. To reach these aims, the research design intertwines multi-sited ethnography, netnography, survey and interviews. The conclusion offers theoretical reflections pertaining to the role of mobilities designs and methodical hybrids in tourism mobilities research.

Cruisers in the City of Helsinki: staging the mobility of cruise passengers

“…The staging mobilities framework is located in the new mobilities paradigm (Lanng & Jensen, 2016;Cresswell 2006;Urry 2000, Urry 2010), looking at mobility as an integral part of everyday life. Mobilities are understood in their socio-material configurations (Fullagar, Wilson & Markwell, 2012;Larsen, 2001;Tranberg Jensen, Gyimothy, & Jensen, 2015) that are significant in individual social and emotional lives (Urry, 2000) Jensen´s staging mobilities model looks at two levels of staging: from above, regulated by planning, design, regulations, and institutions; and from below, produced by interaction and individual performances. The two levels construct the mobile situation within three dimensions: (1) Physical settings, Material space, and Design (PMD); (2) Social Interaction (SI) and (3) Embodied Performances (EP).…”

Diagramming: A creative methodology for tourist studies

“…While creative practitioners (artists, writers, filmmakers and so on) have an extensive history of exploring travel experiences, tourist scholars have only just begun to explore the potential of creative modes of expression and interaction (Barry, 2016;Smith, 2014;Witzgall et al, 2013). Although there is a long tradition of first-hand accounts in ethnographic tourism research and the increasing importance of reflexive and affective, experiential modes of research (Jensen et al, 2015;Ren et al, 2010;Scarles, 2010;Walsh and Tucker, 2009), there is ample room for creative methods that offer alternative modes of engaging with tourists. In line with Caroline Scarles' (2010) exploration of becoming a 'researcher-as-tourist' (p. 914), my own research practices sought to explore the entangled research experience.…”

“…In tourism and geography, there have been several notable studies that embark on alternative methods to address affective and bodily experiences in the field. For instance, exploring the co-constitution of experiences and the ways that we perform with material objects (Franklin, 2014; Walsh and Tucker, 2009), being attentive and listening to the everyday movements that our bodies undertake (Duffy, 2013) and the sensations that our bodies register (Longhurst et al, 2008), or the way that we can mobilise ethnographic practices that trace the relationships and affordances as we move through the world (Jensen et al, 2015; Larsen, 2008). Although these studies are exemplar in their attention to the techniques and materials that researchers and their bodies can use, there is room for additional inquiries into other potential ways to ‘move with’ our research (Merriman, 2014: 174).…”

“…Finding adequate ways of ‘illustrating the subtle negotiations … and the influence of inconspicuous material interventions’ can be challenging (Jensen et al, 2015: 2). The subtleties and ordinary aspects of packing proved difficult to articulate or re-present in the interviews.…”

“…Packing contributes to the way that tourists present and perform their identity and their position within global tourist cultures (Barry, 2016; Hyde and Olesen, 2012; Small and Harris, 2012; Walsh and Tucker, 2009) and it matters because it is emblematic of one of the many daily, embodied material practices that tourists undertake. It can be teased out to reveal relational networks that tourists experience and participate in (Barry, 2016; Jensen et al, 2015; Van der Duim et al, 2012).…”