ABSTRACT

This article contributes to the innovative literature on human mobility, highlighting the sense of place linked to transient mobility among people who live on an island. Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with Romanians living in the Canary Islands, this paper introduces the concept of a ‘floating sense of place’ and advances understandings on how people of different generations use their experiences of mobility in time and space to construct and interpret their sense of place on the move. How is floating sense of place created and how does mobility affect the sense of belonging of people who live transiently on an island? I highlight that the socio-economic circumstances of mobile people together with the particular conditions of the island – especially the presence of the ocean – create corporeal and sensorial predispositions that contribute to the creation of the ‘floating sense of place’. I argue that mobility articulates multiple practices and imaginaries that connect people with the ocean – as both a real and symbolic element. In turn, this helps them bond with various places in their transitory movement, and influences the construction of a floating sense of place: a) living in a floating ‘paradise’ and moving for work or business; b) in-between floating; and c) on-the-move floating: between drift and search of place and future aspirations.

摘要

这篇文章对人类流动的创新文献做出了贡献，强调了与居住在岛上的人们的短暂流动相关的地方感。本文通过对居住在加那利群岛的罗马尼亚人的 40 次深度访谈，介绍了“漂浮的地方感”的概念，并促进了对不同代人如何利用他们在时空上的流动经验来构建和解释的理解他们在移动中的位置感。漂浮的地方感是如何产生的，流动性如何影响短暂居住在岛上的人们的归属感？我强调，流动人口的社会经济环境以及岛屿的特殊条件——尤其是海洋的存在——创造了有助于创造“漂浮的地方感”的身体和感官倾向。我认为，流动性表达了将人与海洋联系起来的多种实践和想象——既是真实的又是象征性的元素。反过来，这有助于他们在短暂的运动中与不同的地方建立联系，并影响漂浮感的构建： a) 生活在漂浮的“天堂”中，为工作或商业而搬家；b) 中间浮动；c) 移动浮动：