ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the field of lifestyle mobilities, focusing on the under-examined phenomenon of location-independence through a world-wide empirical research of 'global nomads'. It provides the theoretical framework, which is built on Foucault's, Giddens's, and second modernists' works, guides the analysis to the relationship between global nomads and societies. The book also examines two opposing discourses with which global nomads and outsiders alike represent location-independence. It discusses the discrepancy between the discourses is used to highlight the ongoing power struggle in which the role of mobilities in contemporary societies. The book focuses to investigate transformations in which global nomads search for a balance between their will to travel and their need for intimate relationships – for which, in most cases, a prerequisite seems to be being settled. It presents the discussion on subjectivity by broadening it to include the dynamics of social interaction.
