Global Abode Home and Mobility in Narratives of Round-the-World Travel

This article explores the way home is redefined within the context of new patterns of corporeal and mediated travel by examining the complex intersection of mobility, home, and belonging from the perspective of long-term world travelers. Through an examination of the stories these round-the-world travelers tell online and in interviews, the article suggests that travelers imagine them-selves as world citizens who are able to feel at home anywhere and everywhere. The article proposes the notion of “global abode ” to capture the interplay between mobility and home, as well as the particularly cosmopolitan attitude these travelers express in terms of feeling at home in the world. Contrary to descriptions of the cosmopolitan as a detached mobile subject, however, the findings suggest that these travelers make themselves at home in the world through embodied, embedded, and localized acts of habitability