Tourism and Embodiment by Catherine Palmer;Hazel Andrews;

Author:Catherine Palmer;Hazel Andrews; [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2020-12-29T21:00:00+00:00

Belonging as mobile, relational, negotiated: a note on theory and method

In understanding the embodied experiences of belonging to the Dykes on Bikes, I follow Probyn’s Outside Belongings (1996). For Probyn, belonging is a mode that cannot be located in some authentic, static, pre-existing state. Belonging is rather an act of constantly becoming, a constant movement which is never fully achieved, never really obtained. Belonging, is a longing, a desire to fit in. It is the restless process between being and longing, that is, be-longing. Belonging emerges through a desire to belong to something, which for the individual does not exist elsewhere. Yearning to belong is a felt, embodied experience – an emotional and relational affiliation that exists, not only between individuals and places but also between individuals and collectives and individuals and things – an essence that emerges as a relationship between things. Belonging aligns allied things, constructing identities through what does and does not conform. To this end, belonging may be conceptualised as a felt experience providing meaning to individual subjectivities and collectives (Wright 2015). To understand belonging, Probyn (1996) foregrounds the body as a place of passage because the surface is where social forces are produced and become visible. Observing the body as it performs and seeks connections reveals desires for belonging, and slippages between moments of belonging and not belonging amid bodies, places and materialities.

There is a politics to embodied experiences of belonging. One does not ontologically, inherently, consistently belong to anyone group. Individuals may consequently need to negotiate or exclude particular subjectivities. By way of example, certain elements of one’s religion may be downplayed or heightened in seeking national belonging in new migratory contexts. Belonging may introduce or reinforce boundaries, a move that renders essentialised understandings concerning what belongs and what does not. There is also unevenness to belonging; some belong more than others, while certain individuals possess the power to determine the requirements of belonging (Yuval-Davis 2011). Belonging may serve as restrictive rather than progressive, or concurrently both.

In determining methods, attention to the body and its performances was conceived as a useful way to explore how belonging is continually made, remade and performed in messy and material ways (Wright 2015). Initially, I had planned to use photos and video to explore the embodied dimensions of riding. While some photos and video were collected, it was largely ‘curated’ by participants before sharing. Participants were hesitant to share most of their data because it was considered boring, mundane and irrelevant. This was despite encouragements that everything was of interest. Participants preferred to talk about the journey. The semi-structured interviews that had taken place with each of the six participants before and after Mardi Gras Parade became the central way through which riding experiences were examined. Participant observation also took place when I was invited to stay with one of the participants, and through this, socialise with some of the Chapter’s members over two separate periods before and after the journey.

Alert to the methodological challenges interviews and observation

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