ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to illustrate how mobility means very different things in different social contexts and how mobility is given meaning and expressed through material objects and people’s engagement with them. It discusses the everyday realities of Camping Mares and Lake Camping; tease out their spatial and social particularities and tell the stories of the people inhabiting them. The book deals with the caravan as an object, tracing its material properties through its historical development, production, marketing and consumption. It shows how campsite community is shaped in conjunction with an outside political and economic context and presents a step back out, from the caravan’s domestic space, to consider the formation of caravan community. The European Caravan Federation calculates that more than five millions caravans and motorhomes roll around on European roads.
